Kynexn's Adventures in Isshu
by TuberNex
Summary: Kynexn's journey through the Isshu Region.
1. Chapter 1: The Journey Begins

**_This is the story that started it all, that spawned a universe. If this is your first time reading this, then know that I want to rewrite this whole thing, and will probably do so, but after the rest has been uploaded._**

* * *

It's Saturday, and not just any Saturday. This Saturday is the day that I began my Pokémon journey again. This is a completely new region for me to explore. I only brought one Pokémon with me to this region, and that would be a Sceptile named Tensa, from my home town in the Hoenn region. He'd been with me on my latest adventures in the Sinnoh region, and the thought of leaving him behind on this would be unbearable.

The first place we arrived was Nuvema Town, where we were greeted by the Pokémon Professor Juniper who was surprised to see me with a Sceptile, as they didn't appear in that region. After that we moved into one of the houses that were near her lab. There we two people in that town who were also going to become trainers later after receiving their first Pokémon from the Professor. Their names are Cheren and Bianca. Cheren is a young black haired male, with glasses that dresses fancily. He wears blue loafers to match his blue coat-jacket and is a bit of an intellectual. Bianca is a blond haired female that wears dresses a lot. Along with her dresses she wears a green beret to complement her stylish green shoulder bag and her green eyes. We had become great friends, and they had asked me to tell stories of my journeys.

Now the day has arrived when we would begin our Pokémon journeys together. I groggily rub my eyes, and check the time.

"8:30 in the morning. Great. Oh, what's this? A gift wrapped box! I think I know what's in here! Alright, now I was waiting for Cheren and Bianca. Tensa, are you up?" I looked over towards the bed that we made together, constructed with reeds and other various grasses.

"How could I not be up with that alarm? I can hear a lot better than you can. Speaking of which, there's someone coming toward the stairs." He informed me, before becoming silent again.

"Oh, that'll be them then. It's about time." I said eagerly, with a big grin on my face. The sound of footsteps coming up the stairs grew louder until finally I saw Cheren emerge from the gap.

"Hey there. Bianca's late again, as usual." He groaned, and adjusted his glasses, a habit of his. I agreed with him, and we both talked for a bit before Bianca finally arrived, three minutes later.

"Hi guys! Sorry I'm late!" She said, with a slight panting, as she was visibly out of breath.

"I've got a feeling that this box has our starters in it. Let's open it! Today is the day we get our Pokémon from Professor Juniper." Cheren said.

"They were delivered to your house so, you should get first pick."

"Naturally." Cheren said politely. I went over to the box and more closely inspected it. Attached to it was a note that said, "I've brought three Pokémon, one for you, and one for each of your friends. Please settle your choices politely. Enjoy your Pokémon! -Professor Juniper"

I opened the box, and inside, three Poké balls were inside. Each had a little logo on the front; a flame on the middle one, a leaf on the left one and a water drop on the right one. I chose the one that had a leaf on it and opened it. A grass Pokémon came out with a flash. The Pokémon cried out, announcing its arrival. "Sniivy!" I could tell right away that this Pokémon was a male.

"Well you sure are an interesting grass type. You'll probably get along with Tensa."

"Hmm, well if you choose him, then I'll choose... this one!" Bianca picked Oshawott, my type advantage. Cheren was left with Tepig, the little orange fire Pokémon starter, my type disadvantage. Now that we all had our Pokémon, I thought that we would be heading straight to the Lab, but Bianca had other ideas.

"Hey I know! Let's have a Pokémon battle!"

"Bianca... I don't think that's such a good idea." I said.

"Honestly Bianca, even though they're weak Pokémon you still should have battle inside a house."

"Don't be such a worrywart. These little ones are weak, like you said."

"Bianca, even at this level, they can still do a lot of damage. My room is going to get destroyed."

"We have to let them battle so they'll get stronger. It's settled Kynexn! Get ready for a battle!"

"Snivy, use Leer!" The Snivy quickly leered at the Oshawott, causing its defence to fall.

"Oshawott, um, use Tackle!" Oshawott quickly charged at the Snivy, but I asked the Snivy to dodge, and so Oshawott hit a bookshelf knocking some of the books on it to the ground, as well as knocking it over on to the floor.

"What? He dodged it?" Bianca exclaimed, surprised.

"Snivy." I could tell from the tone of voice, that the Snivy was directly responding to her, and I interpreted a meaning of, 'Of course."

"Snivy, use Leer again." A second time, Oshawott's defence fell.

"Kynexn, you haven't even ordered an attack move yet. Why is that?" She asked, curious, as the handbook she had read never really covered more than the very basics. Bianca had a confused look on her face, while Cheren nodded understandingly.

"You'll see. Snivy, use Leer a final time, followed by a quick Tackle." Snivy used Leer, lowering Oshawott's defences to critical levels. The tackle finished off the Oshawott's in one hit, causing it get knocked into the wall where the PC was located, moving it around slightly.

"Oh my! Oshawott! Well, it seems that both our Pokémon did well but yours did better." She was a little disappointed that she lost.

"Kynexn! I can see how you live up to those stories you told! Someday we'll be as great as you!"

"Aww, thank Bianca, but really, I'm really not that good. I just started earlier, so I just know more than you is all." I extended a hand to Bianca, which she accepted and we shook hands.

Cheren cleared his throat. "Ahem, guys. You might want to take a look around."

"Ah! Wh-what happened? Woow! Pokémon are amazing! So much power packed in such a small creature! So little, yet so strong! I'm so glad that I got a Pokémon... sorry about your room Kynexn."

"... ... You're so hopeless Bianca. Let me restore your Pokémon for you." Cheren gives a Revive to Oshawott and then uses a potion to heal him the rest of the way.

"I'm going to battle you too. However, I won't make the room any messier than it already is. You will be my first opponent! Get ready! Let's see what you can do Tepig!"

The battle began, and Cheren led off with a Tackle. I didn't give any command, and Snivy was confident in his abilities as well. He took the hit, and then got back into position. I used Leer twice this time instead of thrice, but I used Tackle four times. This time, we were more evenly matched. Although I still won, Snivy was exhausted at the end, having fought two battles in a row.

"Ah, so that's what a Pokémon battle feels like. I lost my very first one, but this feeling... now I am a trainer! Oh uh... we better go downstairs and apologise to your mother." Cheren said, concerned.

"Don't worry about it. I knew it would happen." They head downstairs to talk to my mother. I looked at Tensa, and he looked visibly miffed, even having his arms crossed in a human like fashion.

"That Oshawott decimated my bed. You had better fix it when we come back."

"Hey, who's the trainer here? I'll fix it. And I'll make it even better. Now... Snivy... do you mind if I keep you in your Poké ball for a while do you?"

"Snivy? Sniiivy."

"He said he's never been asked that before."

"Well, that's a surprise. Never mind then, let's go everyone." I put Snivy back in his Poké ball, attached it to my belt and went downstairs with Tensa. Cheren and Bianca were waiting for me.

"You're a bit late, what took you so long?" Cheren said

"Yeah, Kynexn it's not like you to be late." Bianca said with a light-hearted chuckle.

"I was just discussing something with Snivy and Tensa. We're ready to go now."

"Aren't you going to put Tensa in his Poké ball?" Bianca asked, not understanding our unique relationship, and my ideas on the subject.

"No. In one of the regions I visited, it was a trend to keep some Pokémon out of their Poké balls. It makes it easier for you understand how your Pokémon feels. But that's just my views. You don't necessarily have to follow my beliefs." Bianca nodded, and then she and Cheren left for the lab.

"I've got something for you. It's called an Xtransceiver. It's the latest thing; the successor to your Pokétch, if you will." Mom said.

"Well, I'm going to keep my Pokétch, just because it has memories attached with it. I'll just get my Pokédex and be off. See ya later."

"Goodbye and good luck." She waved at me and gave me the Xtransceiver. I put it on my right wrist after removing my Pokétch and put it on my left wrist. I liked the way this device looked; like a small computer. I can't wait to test out all the features. I exited the house and finally made me way towards the lab. Cheren was there at the door, but Bianca was not.

"I'm sorry Kynexn could you go to Bianca's house? She's probably spacing out like she usually does." I nodded and went over to Bianca's house, just in time to catch the end of a conversation, because the door happened to be open.

"No, no, a thousand times, no!" Bianca's dad exclaimed, the fury evident in his voice.

"But... I'm a good trainer who got a Pokémon and everything! I can totally go on an adventure!" Bianca noticed me standing there, and was probably aware that I had heard that last part.

"Oh... It's alright. Let's go, I'll be waiting for you at the Lab." She said, not her usually cheery self. She walked out hastily and headed off to the Lab. I didn't say anything to her father because it wasn't my place to. At least for now. If it got in the way of her journey later on, I would. I went to the Lab and they were waiting for me. We walked inside and Professor Juniper introduced herself to us for the second time.

We all received our Pokédexes together and then headed out. My mom caught up to us and gave us town maps, and then we headed off to Route 1 together.

"Let's take our first steps onto Route 1 together! 1... 2... 3...!" We all stepped past the sign and looked out ahead. Professor Juniper was waiting for us, to show them how to catch Pokémon. I went ahead. Tensa, scared most of the low level Pokémon away but there was one Pokémon who was brave enough to face us. Using Saigo-the name I gave my Snivy-we caught my very first Unova Pokémon, a female Lillipup. I named her Right before we entered Accumula town, and the Xtransceiver rang. Professor Juniper was on the line, asking Bianca to meet her inside the Pokémon Centre. I stayed outside, and waited. In the meantime, while they were inside, a crowd was gathering, because seven people wearing uniforms that looked like a sort of Medieval type armor. There were flags in place on either side of the group. . I noticed that Cheren was in the crowd. A brown haired boy said, "Sound's like something's going on in the Plaza!" Another brown haired boy responded with, "Well let's check it out then." The moved over to the plaza and I followed.

"Kynexn, come here for a sec." I went over and joined Cheren in the crowd. A man with light green hair and a stylised robe with a stylised P on it emerged from the part in the centre of the uniformed people. The robed man bowed, and began to speak.

"My name is Ghetsis. I am here representing Team Plasma. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to talk to you about Pokémon liberation." Scatter voices can be heard, muttering confused phrases and sounds. The crow eventually quiets down and Ghetsis continues.

"I'm sure most of you believe that we humans and Pokémon are partners that have come to live together because we want and need each other. However... Is that really the truth? Have you ever considered that perhaps we humans... only assume that this is the truth?" Ghetsis moves over to the right side of the crowd and continues.

"Pokémon are subject to the selfish commands of Trainers... They get pushed around when they are our 'partners' at work... Can anyone say with confidence that there is no truth in what I'm saying?" He now waits for their reactions. A lot more people react this time. "Yikes!" "No way." "I don't know..." Ghetsis moves over to the left side of the crowd, where Cheren and I are standing.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, Pokémon are different from humans. They are living beings that contain unknown potential. They are living beings from whom we humans have much to learn. Tell me, what is our responsibility toward these wonderful beings called Pokémon?

"That's right! We must liberate the Pokémon! Then, and only then, will humans and Pokémon truly be equals. Everyone, I end my words here today by imploring you to consider the relationship between people and Pokémon... and the correct way to proceed. We sincerely appreciate your attention." Ghetsis and the other members of Team Plasma depart, and the townspeople that heard the speech voice their opinions.

An older man begins to speak, "About that speech... What do you think we should do?"

A younger man responds, "Liberate Pokémon? That's not even possible!" People seem divided on their opinion, and so they leave, save for one mysterious stranger.

Tensa spoke up at that very moment. "Liberate me? I'd never leave you even if you did release me. They're ridiculous."

"I don't want to leave Cheren! I just met him!" Tepig squeaked.

The mysterious green haired stranger spoke up immediately after Tensa did.

"Your Pokémon... Just now it was saying..." I interrupted him.

"I know what he said."

"Slow down a minute. You talk to fast. And what's this about Pokémon...talking? That's an odd thing to say." Cheren said, skeptically.

"Yes, they're talking. Oh. Then, you two can't hear it, either... How sad. My name is N."

"I can understand everything that Tensa says, as well as that Tepig." N had a surprised look on his face for a short time. That however didn't keep him from being determined to prove his point. Cheren was a bit confused.

"My name is Cheren, and this is Kynexn. We were asked to complete the Pokédex and we just left on our journey. My main goal is to become the Champion though."

N responded a little angrily, but he seems to know what a Pokédex was already. "The Pokédex, eh? So... You're going to confine many, many Pokémon in Poké Balls for that, then. I'm a Trainer, too, but I can't help wondering... Are Pokémon really happy that way?"

"N, I don't plan on confining them, but whatever."

"Well, Kynexn, is it? Let me hear your Pokémon's voice again!" N sent out a Purrloin.

"Hm, an interesting one you got there. It reminds me of a Glameow. I wonder what its evolved form looks like. Hmm, Tensa, do you want to take this, or should I ask Saigo?"

"I'll do it. As long as we're together, we're unbeatable!"

"Alright then, use Absorb, to do as little damage as possible." The fight was over in an instant, with a one hit KO. After the battle N gave a small lecture.

"I never expected to hear Pokémon say such things..."

"As long as Pokémon are confined in Poké Balls... Pokémon will never become perfect beings. I have to change the world for Pokémon, because they're my friends." With that, N departed to an unknown place. Cheren commented about the way N acted.

"Huh... Strange guy. But I'm not gonna worry about it. We as Trainers help our Pokémon out, and they do the same for us! Go on ahead. I want to battle the Gym Leader in the next town-Striaton City. Also what did you mean by you could understand what they were saying?"

"I can sort of get a rough idea of what Pokémon are saying, but I can understand everything that your Tepig and Tensa said. Oh and there's another surprise that we have for you, but you have to keep it secret."

"You can understand them? That's a bit unusual. What secret could you have?"

"Not only can he understand us but, I can speak your language too." A gravelly low voice, that belonged to Tensa rumbled. He said it with a cocky grin on his face.

"D-did... did he just speak... in our language?!" Cheren burst out surprised. It was obvious that he thought that maybe he was hearing things, or it was some sort of ventriloquist type thing.

"Yeah. You didn't think it was only one sided did you? I learned how to understand them, because he learned to understand me. And from that, he was able to teach me more. You don't speed seven years with someone without learning a bit of their language. Unless you really don't care about them."

"A good point. But that's amazing! Why would you want to keep this a secret? It would be a great advancement to the scientific community!"

"We don't want any more attention than we already have. People would be asking me how I did it... they'd probably want to ask Tensa a whole bunch of questions... it would get so annoying."

"I see. I'll keep your secret for you, even from Bianca."

"Thank you." Both Tensa and I said.

"Now I'll get going. See you in Striaton City." Cheren headed off to Striaton City, while we stayed behind to explore. I went through a forest on my way to Route 2, after which lied Striaton City. Just before we got to Striaton City, Bianca stopped us.

"Kynexn! Let's have another battle! The Pokémon I've caught have become a little bit stronger!" She said excitedly. Bianca had caught a Patrat since I had last seen her. Once again Bianca lost, but she was excited this time instead of disappointed.

"Woo hoo! You truly are tough Kynexn!" She started to walk away, but turned back to make a comment.

"I'm gonna train harder so we won't lose next time!" She said, before fading away into the distance. I entered Striaton City, and observed the buildings as well as the surrounding mountains. I wasn't familiar with this city so I asked someone where the Gym was. After finding the Gym, I was surprised to find that the Gym Leader was absent. I was told to visit a place that was a Trainer's School. I walked in and found Cheren. Of course he would want to know even more about Pokémon than he already knew. I walked over to him, and asked him if he'd seen the Gym Leader.

"Yeah, he was just here a minute ago. You must have walked right past him." Cheren said, adjusting his glasses while still facing the board.

"Well that sucks, but how am I supposed to know what that person looks like? I'll just go back to the gym then."

"Wait! Kynexn, I was wondering if you would like to battle with me. I want to test out the importance of items in battles." He requested. I was in a bit of a hurry so I turned him down.

"Sorry Cheren, I can't right now. I'm in a bit of a hurry, but if you want, I can tell you about them before I go, and even give you something that will help you out later along the way."

"Oh... that's fine I guess." Cheren sounded a bit dejected.

"I guess I'm not much of a rival am I...? Anyway, items can sometimes in a dire situation, change the outcome of a battle. For instance, I've seen around fifty plus berries, and I know two of which really help if your Pokémon is close to fainting. You probably already know of one.

"An Oran Berry."

"Yes, but there is one that is more potent than that. At lower levels, the Oran Berry saves your Pokémon from fainting. However, unknown to beginners like you, there is another Berry, that when used, restores your Pokémon back to 25% strength. When your opponent is less than 10% you can surprise them by dealing a critical blow. You're very knowledgeable Cheren, so I'm going to help you out. Surprise your opponents with these. Sitrus Berries." I gave Cheren thirty Sitrus Berries in a bag, which he gladly accepted.

"These will really come in handy later... Thank you." Cheren nodded and continued looking at the board, studying ever so diligently. I went to the Gym, and found another green haired person, but this time he was wearing what appeared to be a waiters uniform.

"Are you the Gym Leader that I supposedly missed on my way inside that school?"

"Yes? Yes, I am a Gym Leader of this town. You are...? Right. You want to challenge the Gym. In that case... What was the first Pokémon you chose? Snivy... I see. It's weak against Fire-type Pokémon. I think you need to prepare to face that type. I'll be waiting for you inside." He walked inside and I followed. While I was inside two other people greeted me, and the green haired one also introduced himself.

The green haired one said, "Welcome to the Striaton City Pokémon Gym."

The red haired one introduced himself. "I'm Chili! I light things up with Fire-type Pokémon!"

The one with blue hair that reminded me of ocean waves said, "I'm a Water-type specialist, and my name is Cress. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

The green haired one spoke again for a second time, "And my name is Cilan. I like Grass-type Pokémon."

Cilan murmured, "Um, you see... As for why the three of us, um, are all here is, well, er..."

Chili blurted out, "Oh, enough! Listen up! The three of us will decide whom you'll battle! It'll be based on the type of the first Pokémon you chose!"

Cress commented about my selection of starter. "That is indeed the case. And the partner you first chose was Grass type, it seems."

"No way. I want a full three course meal. We're going to take you all on at once."

"Are you sure? No one's ever asked us to that before. Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Cilan asked, concerned.

"Trust me on this. I'm giving you a slight chance, although that probably won't matter either."

"Why are you so confident?" Chili asked.

"I'm not a beginning trainer. I've been to three different regions, and beat all of their gyms and their Elite Four. We've been through a lot together. Now... let's get started. Send out your first Pokémon." I requested. I'm sure that my speech made them all more than a little nervous.

"Pansear go!"

"Lillipup go!"

"Pansage go!"

"Tensa... Procedure one until we see how they attack." I said, and he went into a stance which resembled an uppercase 'T' with the left and right arms bent down slightly. There was a crowd around the various corners of the area.

"Pansage use Incinerate!"

"No, that's not good enough! You all have to combine your attacks! Tensa use Leaf Storm and Energy Ball! Then go to Number three." Tensa began to gather energy into his hands just as the inferno begins to come closer to him. He forms the energy into a ball and moves the ball into the air. After he does that he while still holding the ball over his head, the bulbs on his back begin to glow. From those bulbs emerge a swarm of leaves. Tensa moves the energy ball and distributes it amongst the leaves, causing them to glow and become charged with energy. The leaves all moved towards all three targets, the Energy Ball charged leaves easily overpowering the incinerating flames. The leaves connected with all of their targets, severely injuring the three Pokémon.

"Because you three didn't attack at once, you're on your way to an early defeat. If your Pansage and Pansear faint then you'll only have Lillipup and Panpour left, so no type advantage."

"I had a feeling that you were different than normal." Cilan said.

"What was it that gave me away? Was it the fact that I have a Pokémon not native to here, or the fact that we walk together?"

"It's a bit of both... actually. When we're done, I have something that I want to ask you. Let's continue though."

"Alright, I think we'll go a bit easier on you all then. Tensa... use Slam on that Panpour."

"Panpour dodge and use Work Up." Cress ordered. Tensa's attack missed, which surprised me. Either they had trained their Lillipups for speed, or Tensa simply was messing around.

"Lillipup use Work Up as well." Cilan said.

"Do the same as the others Lillipup." Chili ordered.

"Tensa... for now, do nothing." We waited until they gave their next attack orders. The Panpour used Fury Swipes combined with the first Lillipup from behind. The Fury Swipes hit three times, but would have hit five times had Tensa not dodged most of them. His other focus was on the Lillipup which is what caused him to get hit by the Fury Swipes.

After that, I ordered Tensa to use Energy Ball to finish off both Lillipups, leaving only the Panpour. They both used normal type moves, but Tensa came out victorious. Being that the Gym Leaders were out of Pokémon and that they had all been defeated, I was going to get my badge.

"You... are very strong. Not even all three of us could beat you..." Cilan said, greatly amazed.

"Congratulations! Whoa ho! You're on fire Guess we'll be giving you this Gym Badge!" Chili cheered. I could tell that even though he was defeated, he was still excited. I liked that.

"Why, you're quite remarkable. I'm sure that if you wanted to you could become a member of the Elite Four."

"No no no! That's what everyone says, but I don't want to do that. If I become a member of the Elite Four, then I won't be able to explore as much."

"In the Unova region, we are still novice Gym Leaders. Which means the other Gym Leaders are much stronger than we are. We'll need to work hard and improve." Cilan explained. I walked over to Chili, who gave me my badge. Cilan gave me a badge case, and then escorted me back to the restaurant part of the building.

"So, what I wanted to ask you earlier was; can I come with you? I want to travel with you?"

"It would be nice to have another companion in the Unova region, but I don't think you should. It wouldn't be the Trio Badge without a Trio now would it? The badge would have to be changed to the Duo Badge until you got back!"

"I see your point. Well if you ever need help, you can always call me. I'll give you my Xtransceiver number."

"Well alright, that sounds like a good idea." We both exchanged numbers, and then I left the Gym. On my way out I was stopped by a female wearing a lab coat, and that had long raven hair. She appeared to be heavily panting. I had absolutely no idea who she was.

"Professor Juniper... said that you might... be willing to help me..."

"Well, hello. My name is Kynexn, how may I be of assistance today?" I said, bowing to her. She also looked very young, and around the same age as what I guessed to be Professor Juniper's age.

"My name is Fennel. I was a friend of the Professor back in college." She had regained her breath by now. After our brief introduction was over she explained to me what she needed help with. Apparently there was a Pokémon called Musharna which is the evolved form of Munna, and there is apparently a Munna at this place called the Dream Site. I went to the Dream Site and tried to find an entrance. There was a wall were a hole was apparently knocked through it. As soon as I started to step through it, Bianca called out seemingly from nowhere.

"Hi Kynexn! Are you looking for the Munna as well?" Just as Bianca throws that question at me, a cry is heard from the distance. I wasn't exactly sure if I heard it, but when Bianca asked it confirmed it for me.

"Hey! Did you hear that? Let's go check it out!" We walked further into the building-what was left of the building-and saw a small pink Pokémon.

"Muuun" It made the same sound that we heard before. This was definitely the Pokémon that she was looking for. We tried to get closer to it but it moved farther away from us. As it moved farther away, I heard the sound of running footsteps. A few seconds later, more members of Team Plasma showed up.

"We found you, Munna!" A male grunt says.

"Come on! Come on! Make some Dream Mist!" The grunt violently kicks the Munna, hoping to make it produce the Dream Mist, as they usually do when protecting themselves, however this Munna did not produce it right then and there.

"Huh? Who are you? What are you doing?" Bianca asks, confused as she had never seen Team Plasma before.

"Are you talking about us? We're Team Plasma. We battle day and night to liberate Pokémon from foolish humans!"

The female grunt finally spoke up. "What are we doing?" "The Pokémon Munna and Musharna emit a mysterious vapor called Dream Mist, which makes people's dreams a reality." She paused and looked back at the Munna.

"We're going to use that to make people want to release their Pokémon..."

The male grunt enters the conversation again. During that last explanation, Tensa began growling, something that I've only heard him do when he is really angry.

"People like you who send Pokémon into battle for them simply for your own amusement..." Team Plasma kicks the Munna again, and it cries out, but still doesn't produce the Dream Mist. At this point, without even being told Tensa rushed over to the male grunt and held him by his neck, summarising my thoughts at that moment.

"That's not a very wise decision." Tensa growled.

"Tensa... as much as I agree with you, you should put him down. Besides, he can't understand what you said anyway." Tensa stopped growling, but still glared at the Team Plasma member. The Team Plasma members don't retreat, even after the outburst.

"You all are fools. You're following an ideal that doesn't make sense. Sure there are some really abusive trainers out there, but not everyone is like that. I don't think you all will ever understand."

"We're going to rescue them from..."

"Oh shut up! I don't care. Just battle me so you can lose!" I interrupted her, severely annoyed.

"Pretty tough talk... for a kid." The female grunt said.

"Alright, let's go."

"Tensa... would you please knock them out, as well as their Pokémon? I can tell that you've been wanting to, but don't make it too painful, I don't want to scar them for life, they're just following an idea, even though I would prefer it if they did get scars..." The male grunt sent out a Patrat to battle, which Tensa defeated with an Energy Ball. The female grunt sent out a Purrloin, which was defeated by a Quick Attack. After the battle they feared what would happen because they lost. Tensa quickly knocked them both out, then laid them against a nearby wall.

"Well, Bianca, that takes care of that."

"I've never seen Tensa act like that before... it was actually kinda scary..."

"Yeah, well, very few people piss him off. The ones that do usually end up hospitalised." Before we even realised how distracted we were from the Munna, a Musharna appears, and prepares to leave with the Munna.

"Tha-thank you." It weakly said. Just before it left, Fennel appeared, as she apparently came to the Dream Site, after a tip that Team Plasma was there.

"Musharna, wait!" I exclaimed.

"What is it?" The Musharna replied, however all the others heard was merely a simple 'Musha?'

"This nice scientist was trying to collect some Dream Mist, but not for the same reasons as Team Plasma." I explained. Before the Musharna had a chance to reply the Munna spoke up.

"He saved me!" It said cheerfully. The Musharna faced me, and could somehow tell that I would be able to understand it.

"Alright. Here." The Musharna closed its eyes, and then a purplish pink cloud appeared above its head. After the cloud appeared, the Musharna opened its eyes again, and moved away, the Munna following. Fennel marvelled at the floating cloud, inspecting it from all angles.

"So that's the Dream Mist?"

"Way to state the obvious, but yeah, that's the Dream Mist."

"Well, with this, it will to finish my research," She was very enthusiastic. I don't understand why she couldn't have just come here in the first place, but I got to meet a rare Pokémon so I guess that's a positive thing.

"Great... so now I'm going to get back to what I was originally doing... collecting badges."

"Thanks for your help."

"Goodbye." We shook hands, and then I left the Dream Site, while Bianca went looking for the Musharna and Munna that we saw. While back at Striaton City, I shopped for some camping supplies; a sleeping bag, a few Super Repels, and two Super Potions. We went back to Striaton Gym and I looked for Cilan. I had changed my mind, and let Cilan come with me. Cilan discussed his going away with his brothers. We set out for route three, and rested at the nearby Daycare.


	2. Chapter 2: The Basic Badge

The sun peeked over the horizon, signifying the start of a new day. We were away from the city, the true peaceful, tranquillity of the forest. This tranquillity would be interrupted however, in the form of a rough awakening from Tensa. He had apparently procured a pail of water which he then kindly proceeded to empty upon my head. This water wasn't just cold, it was freezing cold. Somehow, not only had he managed to find water, but had managed to find frigid cold water.

"Tensa! What the hell did you do that for?!" I yelled. I looked around to see that the landscape was still slightly dark. The sun was about two degrees above the horizon, and slowly starting to bathe the landscape in its glow. After trying to get a sense of what time it was, I checked my Xtransceiver and was utterly horrified at the time. Tensa had a serious look on his face.

"I wanted to talk to you about something important." He said quietly, not wanting to wake Cilan. My blatant disregard for noise level was mostly due to annoyance. I took notice of how quiet he was being after a while though.

"Tensa, what's so important that you woke me up a 5:30 in the morning?" I groaned, finally lowering my voice. It's too early to be thinking about important things.

"I wanted to discuss that." He said, and I could instantly tell what he meant.

"You woke me up for that? Why would you even think about bringing that up here? You have to understand that we're in a different region, and we have Cilan travelling with us. You'll just have to take care it without me for a bit." Tensa crossed his arms.

"Well since we're up, what do you want to do?" I asked, avoiding the other conversation entirely. I needed something to keep my mind off of the topic, because if I didn't I would probably be in the same situation as Tensa.

"If you're going to be that way, then fine. I want to train." Tensa grumbled, trying to figure out a way to get his mind off the situation as well.

"Tensa, you're already super fast and super strong, why would you think that you could improve more?" He had excellent speed as well as excellent strength.

"Look. You're going to train me, understand?" I was not expecting him to be this forceful, as forceful he usually was not.

"...and just who is supposed to be the trainer here? Fine?" I sighed and rolled my eyes. Tensa growled because apparently he had seen me roll my eyes.

"Don't roll your eyes at me. You know what happens when you do that."

"Oh come on. Be reasonable. We've got quite an adventure ahead with Team Plasma in this region. It seems that we just can't escape people with weird ideas. We fought the remnants of Team Magma and Team Aqua in our Hoenn adventures. Then we ran into Team Galactic, as well as a few of our friends." I was referring to a few of the Pokémon that I left behind so that I could start fresh on my journey here with Tensa.

In Sinnoh I had caught a Shinx, which I named Heji. He's a Luxray now. We also met an Aura Knight named Riley. Riley, who upon reading my Aura or something like that, said that I would be perfect for a Lucario. He gave me a Lucario egg for that very reason. I had already thought of a name for the future Lucario. His name is Liru, and I named him in honor of Riley, as well as a being letters from his final form Lucario. After hatching him from the egg, I worked hard in raising him not the way I wanted but the way he wanted. He wanted to become faster and stronger. We all helped him together. In order to keep him happy, as well as train him at the same time with what little knowledge I had of how Aura worked. I would hide and Liru would have to find me using Aura. Of course, I didn't make it easy for him.

"I see. You do have a point, but, I don't think they will be as dangerous as the other gangs where. Now, can we get to training?" Tensa was getting bored now, as evident by the tone in his voice.

"Well then, let's get started." I was about to get a few things out of my bag, but Saigo suddenly emerged from his Poké Ball by himself. That had never happened to me before.

"Snivy..." He said, lowly, aware that being quiet was necessary.

"'Hold it?' Just exactly what do you mean by that?"

Saigo took a while before responded. "Relax. I'm merely pointing out my... frustration with the situation. You can't just do some, secret training. If you're going to train Tensa you have to train me too. When we aren't asleep, we can hear everything you say, even in the Poké Balls." Tensa translated what he said for me and I was a little bit surprised.

"First, how was I supposed to know that all of you could hear me inside those? Second, I was planning on training you anyway. Third, I didn't even know that you all could come out of your Poké Balls like, without me. Alright, fine, just this once you two get private training, any other time and you have to share." I understood his point, but the overall tone of the conversation annoyed me. I started to go to my bag, when I heard movement inside of Cilan's tent. I went over to investigate to find Cilan, dressed in an identical suit to the last one he was wearing.

"Cilan, what are you doing up at this hour?" I asked. He didn't even yawn, which I guess was probably due to some sort of advanced super waiter powers or something.

"I usually get up around this hour to make breakfast, but today I started hearing voices. I thought I heard two people talking. Were you talking to someone?" I wondered about whether or not I should tell him. After all, there were two people in this region who already knew. I suppose that one more couldn't hurt, but he would be the last one.

"Cilan, what would you say if I told you that I could understand my Pokémon?" I suppose that when you think about it, most Pokémon are good at communicating with some sort of sign language as well as body language.

"Well, I think we all have a basic understanding of our Pokémon and as Pokémon Sommeliers, we learn to read body language even further. Such interesting flavours would be created if we could all bond with our Pokémon in such a way!" Cilan ended his sentence with a dramatic flair, spinning around once to accentuate his point.

"Cilan, can you keep a dire secret for the time being?" I was hoping that maybe as a Sommelier he would take our little secret better than most people would.

"What's so important that you want me to keep a secret?" He wondered.

"Well, I can completely understand Tensa and mostly understand the rest of my old Pokémon." I explained. The look on Clan's face immediately changed from excited to skeptical. Cilan began his thinking pose, with one arm crossed over his stomach, and his other arm's hand under his head, with his eyes closed. I could practically hear his own theme song in his head.

"It's thinking time! Now Kynexn... we all know how great it would be if we were able to truly understand Pokémon, but let's face it, scientists have been trying to understand Pokémon for years. For you to make a claim like that? well it's just highly unlikely." He mused.

"Oh man Tensa, this guy... he's a riot. I'm glad he came with us, aren't you?" I chuckled.

"Yes?" Tensa said, is his own language.

"I thought we would have trouble keeping our secret, but it's just the opposite!" I chuckled again, and Tensa chuckled with me.

"Imagine how he'll react when he finds out that I can speak in your language." Cilan was looking a little bit annoyed now.

"Exactly, we'll have trouble getting him to tell anyone since he doesn't seem to believe it himself." He said, again in his own language. At this point, I couldn't hold it back anymore and began to laugh wildly. We would definitely surprise him.

"Would you two please let me in on the joke that I am apparently missing here?" Cilan blurted out.

"We knew that you would be surprised that I could speak your language." Tensa said. As soon as Tensa spoke, Cilan reacted, making sure that he wasn't imaging what he heard.

"Um, Kynexn, I wasn't imagining that right? Did I just hear him speak?" He was confused, his mind trying to run through all logical scenarios. Maybe it was a form of ventriloquism, or possibly something that was pre-recorded, or maybe...

"No, it is not a trick, and yes, you did hear me speak. Your reaction is practically the same as everyone else." He grinned, finally revealing himself.

"That's amazing, what a delicious flavour! It's tasting time! I sense that there is something more... Something even more special than that... You two share a bond that goes beyond friends." Cilan said.

"Now that's interesting. That's quite a talent you got there." I praised. This makes me want to find out more about Pokémon Sommeliers.

"Thank you. I trained really hard to be where I am at today. So, are you ready to make breakfast?"

"You bet. It's... breakfast time!" I cried out, mimicking Cilan in a friendly tease. We both discussed possible options for breakfast. We had decided on start off breakfast rather simply, with Cilan's own batch of Pokémon food. I finished it all off with a batch of Poffins made with assistance from Cilan's burner. I made six spicy Poffins, three with a hint of sourness and three with a hint of sweetness for myself. I just loved Poffins when they were made the right way. Cilan helped me understand what the natures of my Pokémon were, and then I asked them what type of food they liked to see if I guessed correctly.

"Those Poffins are really interesting. I think I might even try one. I think they'd be a nice addition to our menu. How do you make them?" He asked. Making Poffins wasn't exactly difficult, once you got the hang of it.

"Well, since everyone else has already gotten theirs, I guess I could show you." I went over to my backpack and fetched the ingredients for making the dough.

"Alright! Now, for the first part, it is going to be very fluid, like liquid. You're going to want to stir it on very low heat." I demonstrated by showing him that the flame was down extremely low.

Cilan watched carefully, taking meticulous mental notes.

"After about five minutes, it should start to lighten up in colour and take on the appearance of whatever berries you put into it. At this point, you should turn the heat up to halfway. You're also going to want to stir it about this fast, for about two minutes." I demonstrated, stirring at medium speed. The Poffin mix was starting to lighten in color, and become firmer, which would make it a bit difficult for someone who wasn't very experienced. I trusted that since Cilan was a chef he wouldn't have too much difficulty. Two minutes passed and so I moved on to the next step.

"This next step is the easiest actually. You're going to want to go as fast as you possibly can without spilling it, and turning the heat up to maximum, for a final two minutes." The two minutes passed, and then I waited a few minutes for the mix to cool off, and then I used a spatula to take it out. After that, I placed it on a marble slab, and cut a floral design into it, to let the air escape and the giant Poffin cool down.

"So, if it's made perfectly, which I'm not sure it is right now, then you should have a semi-hard crust on the outside and a soft airy interior. That's just this particular one though. Some Pokémon have a personal preference as well as a natural preference. There are some who even like the burnt flavour. There are others who like it to be rock hard. It's just a matter of finding out which, which as you know is a bit easier for me."

"This is an amazing item! Thank you for show me how to make them! But um... can I taste it now?" He looked so excited at being able to taste an exotic food. We both leaned over the pan sized pink treat and inhaled the sweet aroma, reminiscent of both oranges and limes.

"Well, now you can. Be careful though, because it may still be hot. This is actually the biggest Poffin I've ever made." I cut the Poffin down the center, revealing its textured layers showcasing the shell around a soft core. We both ate the Poffin, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Since the Pokémon were finished eating, it was time to begin training.

"Alright Saigo... you wanted training, and you'll get it. First, you should put these on your ankles." I gave him a pair of weighted ankle bracelets that had a slight green color to them. He put them on and immediately began to notice its effects.

"They're going to slow you down considerably. You're already fast, but still not as fast as Tensa was when he was a Grovyle. Once you've overcome these, you'll find that you're faster than ever.

"Interesting." He thought out loud.

"There's more than just that, but focus on your speed for now. Why don't you use Leaf Tornado on Tensa, and see how it feels?" He tried out a Leaf Tornado and missed; the strain of the weights immediately obvious. After a few more tries, he was a bit more successful, but the attack didn't do much damage. Tensa was still faster.

"You're getting better, but you've still got a ways to go. It's going to be quite a challenge from here. Tensa, start moving around now." Cilan was watching me intently, observing my method.

"This is unacceptable! Why can't I do this?!" Saigo growled and pounded his fist into the dirt. I immediately saw the resemblance between him and Tensa's first time attempting this training. I immediately went over to him, and saw that upon closer inspection he was actually starting to tear up. I leaned down and embraced him lightly.

"Shhh... Saigo... don't cry... you just need more time... This training routine isn't easy. Tensa didn't become as fast as he is by himself. He went through the same training routine that you are going through now. You can do it..." I assured him. He looked up at me, with teary eyes, and I wiped the tears from his eyes. I then leaned over to him and brought my voice down to a low whisper.

"Believe in yourself, like I believe in you..." After that, I went back to my original position and asked him to repeat the process once more. He successfully landed a hit, and it was Super Effective, actually causing Tensa to be knocked back a little bit. Cilan and the rest of the other Pokémon clapped, while I gave a look of extreme approval.

"See, I knew you could do it! Your mind was holding you back, now just keep that up, and you'll see the result you want!" I encouraged him on several more times like this, and as promised, it paid off. After three solid days, with an addition of early morning training, Saigo had become as fast as he was before. It was time to take the weights off for now.

"Now... to show you just how much you've improved, I'll take off those weights." I removed the weights and placed them back into my bag.

"That part of your training is over, but there's still a bit more to go. I'm going to help you overcome a few type disadvantages." I grinned. Training with me is not exactly the easiest, but it is well worth it in the end, as many of them would find out.

"Tensa is going to attack with Energy Balls at around one-tenth strength, and will gradually build them up. This will further improve your speed. Attack training comes later. Are you ready Saigo?" He nodded and got into a battle ready position, with Tensa standing by in the attack position.

"Alright, go!" I ordered, and the result was there right away. Saigo noticed his increased speed when he easily dodged the slow blasts, but occasionally was getting hit.

"When attacks like that come at you, a good way to defend is by using Vine Whip or Leaf Tornado." He took to mind this new strategy and started using them after a while. After watching for two hours, I decided that it was time to move to the next difficulty level.

"Tensa, increase the strength to a quarter. You're doing good Saigo, keep it up!" After a few more hits, Saigo was exhausted, but then something amazing happened. After one final hit, Saigo froze, and began to glow.

"Alright! This is great!" I was excited. Watching Pokémon metamorphose was a very fulfilling experience. While Saigo was still glowing, his body started to become slightly larger, but his leaf-like arms became shorter. I suppose he was becoming more snake like. After all, he was a grass snake Pokémon. His yellow collar also grew. After his transformation was complete, he stopped glowing.

"Saigo... My Saigo evolved..." I was happy for him, as well as for myself because he had evolved quickly, and it would make taking on the next Gym easy. He did something that I didn't expect, but completely welcomed. He jumped into my arms, and for the second time, cried but unlike the first time, these were tears of joy. He spoke through sobs which made him a bit more difficult to understand.

"Yo-you're such a great trainer... an-and an even greater friend..." He managed to get out. I smiled. All I did was help him evolve, like we're supposed to do. I had no idea that it would have such an effect on him. Perhaps he just didn't expect that he would evolve so fast. Either way I was happy that he was happy.

"Thank you. Now, I hope you realise that because of the training I gave you, you're already faster than the average Servine. Do you want to be faster than that, or are you done training for now?" I asked, while lightly stroking his back.

"I... thought I was the best... but you showed me differently... Thank you for choosing me..." He started to calm down after a while, and decided that he had had enough training for now. We decided to continue heading out through Route 3, where we encountered Cheren, who proceeded to stop us.

Cheren said excitedly, "Kynexn wait! Let's see whose Pokémon are stronger!" We immediately sent out our best Pokémon first, mine being Saigo and his being hisTepig. He really tried to use his advantage to the fullest, using Ember three times, one of which was a critical hit. He succeeded in burning Saigo, which annoyed me. He finally did a defensive move, Defense Curl and so I applied a salve to cure the burn, and then we finished off his Tepig with a Leaf Tornado.

"I see. So that's how you battle." Cheren says, adjusting his glasses. We were about to begin a discussion regarding our battle styles but were interrupted.

A male Team Plasma grunt ran past us. "Out of the way!" He shouted, running at full speed.

Bianca ran up beside us, and tried to catch her breath. "Hey, where... were... those... people headed?"

Cheren pointed to the opposite direction in which he was standing, "That way, but...Why are you running now?"

Bianca groaned, "Argh! They run so fast!"

A small brown haired girl was visibly crying. "Miss... Oh... My Pokémon?"

Bianca tried to comfort the little girl. "Don't cry, it'll be alright. It'll be alright."

Cheren was still a bit confused. "Bianca, why were you running?"

Bianca looked down at the browned haired girl, and then back to Cheren. "They stole this young girl's Pokémon."

Cheren had an incredulous look on his face. "You should have spoken up sooner!"

I clenched my fists in anger. "They're going to regret this."

Cheren moved near the cave entrance, and then directed me to the location in which the two members of Team Plasma ran. "They ran through here! Come on!" He announced.

We entered the cave, which was known as Wellside Spring.

Cheren spoke up, "Kynexn this bothersome bunch doesn't really listen to reason."

The first male grunt, believing to be doing what he was doing for the right reason asked us, a question to which could not really be answered. "That child cannot use a Pokémon to its full potential. Doesn't that make the Pokémon Sad?"

I glared at them angrily and say, "You're not the one who decides that!"

The first grunt didn't get the message. I was angry, and that is a bad thing. "It's the same thing all with all your Pokémon so hand them over to us now! Better yet... We'll just take them!

I sighed, calming down a little bit. "You all really do ask for more pain, don't you?"

I sent out Saigo, who easily dominated the grunt's Pokémon with Vine Whip.

The male grunt had a look of horror on his face, as well as surprise. "What? Beaten by a kid? Wha...? How can we lose when we have right on our side?!"

Kynexn grinned sadistically. "Technically I'm not a kid."

Cheren cheered after I won the battle. "Nice moves you two! Now go return the Pokémon to that girl."

Another male grunt came in from the distance, making him the third male grunt to cross paths with me. "You don't need to return it! How troublesome. Not only do you fail to understand, but you actually got in our way, to boot."

Team Plasma had a lot more male grunts than female ones it seemed; which I deduced from the pattern in which I had fought them so far. This one maked the fourth male grunt in a row. "There's two of you and two of us. We'll show you our combined power and teach you that we are right!"

I shook my head in annoyance. "You call forcing your ideals on innocent children right? No wonder you all lose to me so easily!"

Cheren groaned, "These guys crawl outta the walls like... Still, why are Pokémon robbers acting so self-righteous? Let's show them how it's done!"

I sent out Tensa, who, being the experienced 'mon that he was, defeated the third grunt's Pokémon easily with Energy Ball. Cheren decided to once again utilise his Tepig's Fire-type abilities, by constantly ordering Ember. The two Team Plasma members were easily defeated.

The second grunt began to spit out ideals that were just pasted from his superiors. "In order to liberate Pokémon from foolish people we will take their Pokémon."

The third grunt did the same, only he was a bit more personal in his approach. "Pokémon trainers like you are making Pokémon suffer..."

Cheren adjusted his glasses, which probably meant he was thinking again. "What do you mean?"

The first grunt decided to speak up this time. "We'll give it back... But be aware of how this Pokémon suffers from being used by people. Someday, open your eyes to your own complicity."

Bianca smiled and thanked us. "Kynexn! Thank you so much! The two of you got her Pokémon back! I'm so lucky to have friends like you two!"

The brown haired little girl also thanked me, overriding Cheren. "Thank you, mister!"

Bianca held the little girl's hand and then walked away with her. "I'm gonna see this girl on her way. Bye Kynexn!" Once again, it seemed that the two completely ignored Cheren's part in this rescue.

Cheren goes ahead to Nacrene City, unphased by the fact that he was ignored. I met back up with Cilan, and we headed towards the city too. After we arrived, about fifteen minutes later, Cheren greeted us, rather me, again.

Cheren, pointed towards the Gym, which also doubled as a museum. "Come with me a sec. I've done some research and, Nacrene City's Gym Leader uses Normal types."

I appreciated the heads up, and prepared my strategy according to the Gym typing, as well as my own improvised strategy, which I was probably going to use anyway. I headed towards the Gym building, but right as I get to the door, N steps out of it.

N sounded different than the last time I had seen him, and he began the conversation as if he was already talking to me and that I wasn't listening. "I... want to see things no one can see. The ideals of Pokémon inside Poke Balls. The truths of how trainers should be, and a future where Pokémon have become perfect..."

N continued by asking a question and awaiting my response. "Do you feel the same?

I nodded. "Yes. Not even I understand the motives of selfish humans N, but you're still not seeing the bigger picture."

N blinked his eyes, or what I perceived as a blink. It was hard to tell under that cap of his. "You... You confuse me. You both agree with me on some and disagree with me on other beliefs, yet you are so firm on your beliefs. When the time comes, will you be ready? Right now, my friends aren't strong enough to save all Pokémon. Maybe I can't solve the equation that will change the world. So, I need power... Power enough to make anyone agree with me. Now I know what power I need. Zekrom! The legendary Pokémon that, along with the hero, created the Unova region. It's my turn to become that hero-and you and I will be friends!"

I smiled at N, understanding where he was going with this. "N, you can't just force your ideals upon people like that. Someday you'll see..."

Lenora, with her apron throw over her shoulder, instead of how I had heard that she wore it sometimes, greeted me. "Welcome! The director of the Nacrene Museum and the Nacrene Gym's Leader is me! Lenora! Well then, challenger, I'm going to research how you battle with the Pokémon you've so lovingly raised!"

We began with normal types. I sent out my Herdier, and she sent out hers. During the battle she used Take Down twice, which caused me to have the advantage right away. She tried to even it out with Leer but that didn't work. I had Lord James use Crunch and Leer, and the Crunch was a critical hit, made even more effective by the Leer, causing her Herdier to faint. She sent out a Watchog next.

"Great job James, you were really great! Come back and rest now!" I returned him to his Poké Ball and sent out Saigo.

"Saigo, start out with Growth, and then use Leaf Tornado!" He quickly complied, and was dead-on accurate. I had also trained him in accuracy a little bit, shortly before the trip to the city. Her Watchog used Retaliate, and then Leer twice. I had anticipated that, so I had Saigo take a Retaliate after the two hits. He endured them well. We bided our time well, and caught her off guard with a finishing Leaf Tornado Vine Whip combo.

She congratulated me shortly afterward. "My theory about you was correct. You're more than just talented... You're motivated! I salute you!"

She further congratulated me. "Your fighting style is so enchanting. It is charming. You are a Pokémon Trainer worthy of receiving this Basic Badge! I have the feeling you're not exactly what you appear to be. Perhaps we'll battle again someday, on different terms than a Gym Battle."

After going upstairs, we found that Team Plasma was here. They claimed that they would take a 'dragon Skull' or something, from under our noses, but I had Tensa use Leaf Storm to clear the smokescreen, as well as trap them so he could knock them out, which was fun for me again. I think that Tensa enjoyed knocking out the Team Plasma members too. When I decide to leave, Bianca and Cheren arrived.

"And these two are...?" Lenora asked.

"They're my friends." I clarified for her.

"Your friends?" She asked.

"The one with the glasses is Cheren, and the blond haired girl is Bianca." I said, being more specific.

"Bianca and Cheren," She said, before she noticed the Poké Balls on their belt, "oh, I see. They're Trainers." She concluded.

Bianca remembered something that she forgot to do. "Oh! Oh, Kynexn! Take this with you! Fennel gave me this dowsing machine to give to you."

After a few minutes, a cloaked man arrived, apparently not realizing that Tensa had defeated the Team Plasma members. Lenora saw his exotic dress, and wondered who he was.

The man answered very elegantly, and before he even spoke, I knew he would be giving another long speech, that I would have to listen to. "I am one of the Seven Sages of Team Plasma. Ghetsis, another of the Seven Sages, will liberate Pokémon with words alone! The remainder of the Seven Sages have ordered their compatriots to take Pokémon with full force! But the odds are a little against us now. To you, the Normal Pokémon user Lenora, I say... Know your enemies, know yourself, and know you need not fear the result of a hundred battles... This time, we shall retreat quietly. To secure the liberation of Pokémon we will steal from Trainers! Even though you are Gym Leaders, we will not tolerate any further obstruction from you. In any case, we will settle this someday. I hope you are looking forward to that time as much as I..."

Lenora was a bit stunned, but shook it off for now, and turned back to me. "Kynexn... Thank you so much for stopping team Plasma from taking that Dragon Skull! With a kind Trainer like you taking care of them, the Pokémon with you must be happy. Here is a token of my gratitude. Please use it carefully! This is a Moon Stone! Now, I must take that Dragon Skull back to the museum." I gladly accepted the stone and headed on my way to the next city with Cilan.


	3. Chapter 3: The Insect Badge

After resting at a cheap hotel, Cilan, Tensa and I finally set off from Nacrene City. We had managed to find a shortcut to Skyarrow Bridge, bypassing a lot of the busy main route. The bridge was absolutely fantastic. Magnificent silver light glinted from the bridge in the early morning. It was foggy today, but a regular bridge crosser was kind enough to guide us through the fog. After we crossed the magnificent bridge, we gazed upon the city from up close. Even from a distance the city looked impressive, the buildings towering for miles, but now that were here we truly got a sense of the scale of things. We then moved through the next gate area, and entered the city.

One of the first places we visited in the city was its Pokémon Center. From there, everyone rested and then we headed for the Gym. When we arrived at the Gym, Cheren exited. He was there first it seemed.

Cheren looked pleased with himself. "I just challenged Burgh. He's a seasoned Gym Leader. He made me work for that Gym Badge. But for me Bug-Type Pokémon aren't a challenge. I'm going to keep winning like this against all over the Unova region's Gym Leaders! Then I'll head for the Pokémon league and become a Champion! If I do that... maybe I'll live up to you. That will make me feel truly alive."

"Cheren, you probably shouldn't try to base your efforts on what I have done. You're only thirteen, after all. I can appreciate being a role model, but... I wouldn't recommend trying to duplicate my results right away." He paused for a moment and I could tell that he was thinking about it, but he didn't really say anything after that. He just walked away and made his way into the city.

Shortly after he left, Burgh emerged from the building.

Burgh, after seeing me, snapped his fingers. "Ah hah! You're the one who beat Team Plasma at the Nacrene City Museum! If I remember correctly from what Lenora told me... your name is Kynexn! Come to challenge the Gym, I suppose? Aww. Sorry but can it wait for a bit? Team Plasma is here! They've been spotted at the Prime Pier." Of course. Typical. Right when I really feel good about having a battle, something comes up. I hope all of the Isshu Gym leaders aren't like this.

I sighed and we headed down to the central pier, where I spotted Bianca and anunknown female with her.

Burgh frowned. "Team Plasma... They took this young lady's Pokémon." I had no idea why Bianca was here in Castelia City before I was. Cilan, who had never before heard of Team Plasma, was curious. "Is this Team Plasma a really big problem?"

I sighed, exasperated. "They are starting to become one, yes."

Bianca sniffled, trying not to sob. "Kyn... My Munna... Team Plasma took it..."

"Bianca, I'm a bit confused as to what you expect me to do about it. They're probably long gone by now. What are the chances I'll be able to do anything about it?" I said, rather coldly.

"I... I... I guess you're right." She wiped her eyes with her handkerchief, before looking back up at me again.

"Who is that young lady next to you, Bianca?" I said, pointing at the brown skinned girl with the rather large and long hair.

"Oh, me? My name is Iris! Basically, I heard this lady's scream and ran after the thief as fast as I could. But this city is so big and so crowded... I'm afraid I lost them." She said.

Burgh was trying to reassure her, "Iris... You did everything you could."

Iris stamped her left foot on the ground. "But that's so bad! Taking people's Pokémon is really bad! 'Cause it's really nice when people and Pokémon are together! They each have something the other doesn't, and they help each other!"

I sighed again. "This is one of them Burgh... you'll only get in my way." Suddenly a member of Team Plasma, a female grunt came running near us, panting.

"What's a Gym Leader doing here!? Last time went so well, I thought I'd grab another Pokémon... Rethinking... I need to get out of here!" She said, before fleeing the scene.

Burgh looked in the direction of the fleeing Team Plasma member. "Kynexn, let's go!"

I frowned at Burgh, wanting to get things done as quickly as possible. "I don't need your help, nor do I want it."

"Nonsense! Iris! You stay by that young lady's side." He said. Seems I was getting his help whether I wanted it or not.

Iris nodded her head and then turned towards Bianca. "I'm gonna be Bianca's bodyguard. So you got after those guys, OK?" We went deeper into the circle, and eventually make our way to Gym Street, and immediately found a most clearly not even trying to be inconspicuous trio of Team Plasma members outside of a building across from the Gym. We approached the middle grunt and asked if he'd seen another member of Team Plasma run by. I knew that they would probably protect their own members but, I had no idea what was happening right in front of our eyes.

The male grunt in the center whistled nonchalantly. "No one's here! Not a soul! No other members of Team Plasma, nor any of the Seven Sages are inside."

I quickly brought the palm of my hand up to my forehead, before beginning to speak. "You know that only works in the movies right? Well, if there's no one there then you won't mind if we go in right?"

"Uh no! You can't do that... really there's no on in there! You can battle me if you don't believe me!" The grunt said, not convincingly at all.

"I don't believe you." I said.

"Fine! Let's battle! Guys I'll take care of this weak looking guy so you can show off by taking that tough-looking guy over there!"

"Weak looking? I'm sorry, but you have that reversed. I'm the one who is going to bring you down." I taunted, not at all pleased by the unknowing insult.

"Whatever! Let's go!" He sent out his first Pokémon which was a Sandile. I had planned on surprising Burgh by using a Whirlipede, just like his, but this was a perfect time to use him instead.

"Very well... Pendragon, come on out!" The Whirlipede emerged from his Poké Ball, and then started spinning, showing off as usual.

"Ah, you... Knowing these crocodiles... you probably want to fight, right? Well sorry, this time Saigo takes the cake." He turned around and looked me with what I interpreted to be frustration. He still wasn't used to my odd sense of humour yet.

"Uh... Pendragon... I'm only kidding... you and Saigo together create a double weakness for that Sandile. Sorry if I angered you..." I'd read that it was best not to anger them, when they are recently caught.

Together they both used their respective type based attacks, easily defeating the Sandile. I was noticing a pattern with these grunts. All of their Pokémon were really basic. Then it dawned on me, Team Plasma members were probably using the same Pokémon that they had stolen, to battle with! The other two grunts still remained silent, but the main middle grunt spoke up. "Come on. Seriously? All I did was take people's Pokémon."

"Yet another person who is spouting out their useless ideals. And that's bad. Keep embarrassing yourselves by getting beaten by a 'kid' guys, it's really entertaining. As long as you all keep following those ideals, you're going to keep getting beaten by me."

"This is bad! Bad bad bad bad bad! I must report this to the Seven Sages right away!" He said, before running into the building. I looked over, and Burgh's Whirlipede had defeated the other grunts much the same way as mine had. Burgh asked me to wait a bit, so I decided to wait. Only a minute passed before Iris and Bianca showed up, after our encounter with Team Plasma ten minutes before.

Iris rubbed the back of her head nervously. "We got lost. Even with the map on the Xtransceiver we still got lost! I took us 10 minutes to find this place!" She said.

I rolled my eyes at her, though not when she was looking.

Burgh pointed at the building that we were standing outside of. "Team Plasma is inside. The stolen Pokémon may be inside there as well. Let's go!"

Iris perked up and suddenly decided to enter herself into the equation. "This time I'll join the fight! Come on Bianca!" We all entered the building and found Ghetsis, the three Team Plasma members we fought, as well as two more of the Seven Sages.

Ghetsis, upon noticed Burgh, immediately addressed him, as if it was an everyday thing to talk about Gym Leaders as if they were lower than him.

Ghetsis grinned. "My word, if it isn't the Gym Leader, Burgh."

"So, what would you say is the guiding principle of Team Plasma, anyway? "Take what you want away from people'?" Burgh said, slightly tolerant, but I could sense a bit of frustration under his exterior.

The Sage wearing black, turned to Ghetsis and started to speak. "I thought it would be amusing to prepare a hideout right in front of a Pokémon Gym, but we were detected more quickly than I imagined."

Ghetsis, nodded, agreeing with him apparently. "Indeed. No matter. We already have an exceptional base of operations."

The idea of having a base of my own would actually be very interesting. "I will find it, even if I have to take down EVERY SINGLE member of Team Plasma."

Ghetsis continued with his speech, not really paying much attention to me at all. How arrogant.

"Is everyone familiar with the legend of the founding of the Unova region?"

Iris, who seemed to be overly excited recently, spoke up. "I am! It's the black Dragon-type Pokémon, right?"

Ghetsis blinked, before continuing, "The truth is this... The black dragon appeared before a hero who sought the ideal way to knit together a world full of warring people. This black Dragon-type Pokémon shared its knowledge-and bared its fangs at those who stood against it."

I smiled, as I actually knew about this legend. "So that's Zekrom then? I thought that it was just a legend." Everyone, even Ghetsis was shocked at my knowledge.

"Kynexn... how would... you know that?" Bianca asked

"Why do you know that?" Burgh asked, with Bianca.

Ghetsis blinked, before asking a question in a similar manner.

"Indeed... I am curious as to how you came into knowledge of this... Are you going to answer us?"

"No. I'd rather not talk about it. Just say, that I heavily research each region that I go to, and leave it at that." I said flatly.

"Very well. I shall continue. Together, the power of this Pokémon and the hero brought unity to the hearts of everyone in the land, and that is how Unova was created. We shall bring back the hero and that Pokémon to Unova once again! If we can win people's hearts and minds, we can easily create a world that I-I mean, Team Plasma-desires!"

Burgh came up with a counter mini-speech of his own, which I still listened to, despite hitting my speech limit for the day. "Here in Castelia, we have a lot of different kinds of people. Everyone's ways of thinking and lifestyles are very different. Honestly there's something about what you're saying that I don't quite understand."

"Yes? What is it?" Ghetsis responded.

"One thing we all have in common is that we all care a lot about Pokémon. Even people meeting for the first time can talk about Pokémon. Talk or battle or trade... Remember your speech at Accumula Town? You were responsible for leading me to rethink my relationship with Pokémon. For that, I thank you. At that time, I made a promise... I swore to myself that I would dedicate to Pokémon even more strongly! What you guys are doing... Aren't you going to strengthen the bond between people and Pokémon even more?" Burgh said.

Ghetsis lets out a maniacal laugh. "You are quite hard to figure out-a little more intelligent than I'd expected. I am fond of intelligent people, you see. You'll enjoy hearing about this. From every corner of the world, I have gathered knowledgeable people for our king's benefit. You could call them the Seven Sages. Very well! We will submit to your opinion and be on our way. That girl over there... Return her Pokémon!" The second male grunt sets her Munna free, and then gives her the Pokéball.

Bianca becomes cheerful again, after almost crying. "Th-Thank you! Munny, I'm so glad to see you again!"

I sighed. "Well of course. It would go against their... ideals if they were to hurt her. I may want to have a talk with her later."

Ghetsis chuckled again. "The friendship between Pokémon and people can be very touching. But, in order to liberate Pokémon from foolish people, we will revive the legend of Isshu-and win the hearts and minds of everyone. Farewell..."

I decide to leave, getting all the information, and Team Plasma followed me out, though not directly. I headed for the Gym, and waited for Burgh. Burgh finally arrived after ten minutes of conversing with Bianca and Iris.

"Ah... Kynexn, you've shown quite a lot of skill. I'm glad that I finally get to face you on the battlefield! Let's go!"

He sent out his Whirlipede first, and in return I sent out my Tranquill.

"Sally go! Rule the air! Use Air Slash!" The hit connected perfectly and caused his Whirlipede to flinch from the pain. That allowed us to get in another Air Slash, which was a critical hit, severely damaging his Whirlipede. Burgh finally managed to get in an attack, a very ineffective Steamroller. However, it did minor damage surprisingly, and I suppose that that meant that Burgh had trained it very well. His Whirlipede fought valiantly but was finished off with a third Air Slash.

"Whirlipede, you did great... come back for a rest now. Dwebble, come on out!" He called, and a Dwebble emerged.

"Ah... well then. Sallyreturn..." I pointed her Poké Ball at her and then a red light engulfed her and reformed her back into it.

"Fine. Then it's up to you Pendragon! Steamroller!" Pendragon begins to spin rapidly, causing his spikes to become a blur as he moves across the ground towards his Dwebble. He countered with Sand-Attack, which I didn't expect and it caught us off guard.

"Nice one Burgh! But don't think that that's all we've got!" The next attack was an extremely lucky Venoshock. It was not only a critical hit, but it was a poisoning critical hit, meaning that if it was used again, it would do double damage if use again, so of course it was used again. His Dwebble never stood a chance, even with a resistance to poison, so Burgh was down to his last Pokémon. So, that was that. In order to quickly finish the battle, I sent out Tensa, who used Leaf Storm, knocking his Leavanny across the room, knocking it out in one hit.

Burgh, at first was disappointed by his loss, but that quickly changed.

"Aww... I lost. Whatever! Losing to you doesn't bug me because you are a-MAZ-ingly strong! I'm so glad that I lost to someone like you! This is the Gym Badge! It's insectible-I mean, incredible!"

"...You're a strange one, Burgh. You're the happiest Gym Leader that I've defeated in this region." I grinned and offered a hand to him, which he gladly accepted.

"Battling you was like seeing a one of a kind piece of artwork."

"Burgh, I will look forward to a rematch with you. However, you better be stronger, because I won't go easy on you next time." I said with a smile, before heading out to leave the Gym. Almost immediately after I left the Gym, Bianca called me on the Xtransceiver.

"Hey there Kynexn! Where are you now?"

"I... I literally just walked out of the Castelia City Gym."

"Can you do me a favor? Let's have a Pokémon battle! Iris trained me, and I've become a little stronger. I should be able to protect my own Pokémon now. You wanna me at the gate of Route 4?"

"Sure. I guess I'll have a battle with you." I seriously doubted that her Pokémon could have gotten that much stronger in just the short amount of time between our last meeting. I suppose her technique could have improved and all, but that wouldn't really do much. It was also worth mentioning that she mentioned her own personal strength. Perhaps this meant that she'd finally be able to face her father when he tracked her down and confronted her. It was obvious that it was going to happen, considering how much of a control freak, and borderline abusive he was.

"Great! I'll see you then!" Bianca said, before hanging up. After she hung up, the Pokémon Center was my next stop. After resting my Pokémon I headed through the city, and made my way to the Route 4 gate, to meet Bianca.

Bianca, waved at me. "Heeey, Kynexn! You remember the promise you made on the Xtransceiver, right?"

I grinned at her. Well it wasn't exactly a promise, but sure.

"Yeah, ok." I said.

Bianca, smiled again, and began digging through her mess of a purse. "So, let's get right to our Pokémon battle!"

"Alright, let's get to it." I started to walk towards the exit but Bianca stopped me.

"Kynexn, where are you going?" She asked.

I was a bit confused, and so I asked her what she meant. "Don't you want to battle outside?"

Instead of answering me Bianca went over to a gate attendant and asked something rather quietly that I couldn't make out.

"I talked to the attendant and she said that we can have a Pokémon battle in the gate as long as we're careful enough to not break the electric bulletin board." At least she remembered what happened in my room.

"Well, I guess we can try. If it does happen, I could probably replace it, but it would set me back a bit." I said with a frown.

"This is great! I'm the new-and-improved version of me! Let's start up our Pokémon battle again!" She started with a Herdier and so I sent out Saigo. Saigo used Vine Whip and heavily damaged her Herdier.

"Oh my goodness! Kynexn how could you be so rough!" She yelled at me. Somehow Bianca had managed to procure a Hyper Potion, and was about to waste it, as a Super potion would have probably healed her Pokémon.

"Um, we are in a battle, are we not?"

"Yeah but you don't have to be so rough do you?" She said, with a pout on her face, and worry in her voice.

Both Saigo and I sighed. "Bianca, I would have thought that having your Pokémon taken would have enlightened you. If I hold back with you now, you'll never learn."

"Oh, I see." Bianca's tone immediately changed to something more serious, something that surprised me greatly. Her Herdier then used Crunch, damaging Saigo slightly, and he countered with another Vine Whip that was a critical hit. Bianca immediately rushed over and used another Hyper Potion.

"Bianca... why didn't you use Super Potions? Those Hyper potions are for really serious injuries... Well anyway, Do whatever you want. Saigo, use Leaf Storm to finish off her Herdier." Bianca's Herdier appeared to withstand the onslaught of leaves, but after several attempts to get up, couldn't make it, and so he was then classified as unable to battle. She sent out her Munna next.

"Go Munny!" She said, activating the Poké Ball, trying to maintain an outer look of strength. Her Munna attempted to use Psywave, but Saigo dodged, as he was too fast for her due to our training. Saigo, performed a powerful Leaf Storm that knocked her Munna back quite a bit. Tensa looked on at Saigo's performance, impressed. I was surprised that even with all the leaves blowing everywhere that the sign had still managed to stay intact. Bianca switched to a new tactic. She had her Munna use Hypnosis. Even though it was successful I shook my head.

"Bianca, you didn't anticipate me well enough. I have this." I reached into my bag and pulled out a vial that contained the extract of a Chesto Berry. The vial was just a simple glass vial. However, it had a release mechanism for the liquid inside which was highly complicated looking. The stopper was made out of a metal which I was unfamiliar with, and it had an adjustable nozzle for controlling the outflow. I twisted the nozzle to its lowest possible setting and then moved over to Saigo. I opened his muzzle an tilted his head back so that I could pour the liquid in. Two small drops came out and landed on his tongue. He awoke instantaneously.

"This little vial contains something more powerful than anything you can find in stores. Too much at once will cause a Pokémon to stay awake for at least few days to a maximum of a few weeks, unless the opposite effect is given, which I don't have. I guard this vial with my life." I said, seriously. Bianca didn't ask any questions at this time, and continued the battle. Saigo used a Vine Whip this time, causing her Munna to faint. She sent out her Pansear next, which meant that she was down to her last two Pokémon.

"Ah. Bianca, you've finally gotten a type advantage against me. Too bad you won't get the change to use it. Tensa... use Slam." Tensa moved in front of Saigo who moved back to where I was standing. After the battling order was reestablished, he used Slam, instantly knocking out her Pansear. After that she was forced to use her last Pokémon, her recently evolved Dewott.

"Alrighty then, Saigo you're up again." Saigo and Tensa switched again, and so Bianca sent out her Dewott. This battle didn't last very long due to Saigo having the type advantage. I won the battle, and Bianca was disappointed. I could tell that she really wanted to win.

Bianca began solemnly, "I trained with Iris but I still couldn't win... I'll never be a strong Trainer like you or Cheren or Iris, but... You know, since we left Nuvema Town, I've met a lot of people and I've been thinking about what I want to do in life. When you look at it that way, Pokémon have given me a lot of new experiences. Having my Pokémon stolen was just really hard, and I felt really unsure... Still I'm really glad I went! I've learned so much on this journey. And I also learned that being with Pokémon is really, really important! Ok, well I hope to see you again soon! Bye-bye, Kynexn!"

I quickly stopped her. "Oh no you don't. You're not leaving yet. Saigo and I have a few things to say to you first. First of all, speeches, why does everybody seem to be giving speeches lately? Second, No, you never will be as strong as me. Neither will Cheren, because I keep improving. That doesn't mean you should give up. Like I told Cheren, I'm older than you... it's just natural that I'd have more experience than you. Don't talk yourself down like that okay?"

Saigo spoke up finally. "Kynexn is a different type of Trainer, and a different type of person. He can bring out the best in all of us. You just need time. If you still don't know, then I wish you well in whatever you choose to do."

I raised an eyebrow at Saigo. "Whoa... I wasn't really expecting you to say all that. You really believe in her. Bianca, he says that I'm a different type of Trainer than you. I bring the best out 'us', referring to both you and Pokémon, and that you just need time to do the same. I wasn't instantly good either. He also gives best wishes in whatever you choose to do with your life. I do too."

Bianca was flabbergasted, and it took her a while before she could form a sentence. "...Kynexn you're amazing..."

She paused, and then postulated a question for me. "You understood that?"

I sighed. "Pretty much..."

Bianca was both impressed and still a little bit shocked at the same time. "How long have you been able to do that? Understanding Pokémon I mean."

"I've been learning for five years, and only having 'mastered' it in the past year, so not very long," I explained. "I had to learn even more things with Saigo... because he speaks with a different syntax... uh... never mind. Anyway, I wish you well too Bianca."

Bianca bowed her head, and turned away. "Thank you both for believing in me but, I still don't know what I'm going to do."

Bianca walked off in the opposite direction, and then I walked back through the city and began exploring. I continued roaming the streets, though this time with three of my Pokémon out. It seemed that the people this city were almost always in a hurry. Most of the time they didn't even care to recognize the fact that my Pokémon were roaming free. Though eventually we were getting some looks. There'd be an occasional double take by random passerby. Eventually we wound up in a caf?, where I took my Pokémon's orders, which the waitress found a bit strange but didn't really question it that much, because she was getting paid and probably had seen a lot of weird things. Our next goal was to find a hotel, that would allow Pokémon. Most hotels did, but there were many that did not. I usually purchased a room that had two king sized beds in it, which sometimes raised questions since there was nobody else besides me, since Pokémon weren't usually included in the mix. We made our way to a deceptively luxurious hotel. It was pretty nice looking on the outside, but on the inside it was even better. There was a giant chandelier in the middle of the room in which we entered, that had several tiers. The floor was covered with fancy waxed and polished porcelain that we could see our reflections in. If this was just the lobby, then I wondered what the rooms looked like.

With the way I was currently dressed, I felt a little bit out of place in this luxurious hotel. Though I guess the reaction I get will probably reflect the type of people that visited this hotel. After standing there for who knows how long, looking lost or idiotic, we finally made our way to the front desk.

"How may I help you sir?" She said in a professionally polite matter. She was dressed in a blue business suit, modified to fit the hotel. I guessed from the way I was greeted, and based on the manner of dress in which she was, that this hotel probably a high end hotel, that would be considered rather expensive.

"Will that be all for tonight sir?" The clerk at the desk said, with a bow.

"Yes, that's all for now." I said, and then she handed me the room key. I could tell that this clerk wasn't one to ask questions, regarding why I had purchased two king sized beds, but only Tensa and I showed up, which in a way I appreciated, but it also made me wonder even more what types of customers this hotel catered to.

We spent the night together, enjoying ourselves. The other Pokémon did not seem to mind. After we woke up the next morning, I turned on the television and watched the local news.

"...sandstorm is not as intense today, but travelers are still advised to be cautious. Construction will continue in about a week." The weather forecast for the Resort was over, and the regular afternoon news began again.

"Gym Leader and artist Burgh, has unveiled a new painting today, which focuses on the importance of good relations between a Trainer and their Pokémon." The newscaster said.

"A little odd timing, right after our Gym battle, Burgh reveals a painting about that. I'm certain it's just a coincidence though. Now... regarding our next move. We have to go through that desert, which means I get to pull out the goggles."

"You were looking for a legitimate excuse to wear those again, weren't you?" Tensa said with a grin.

"Why... Hm, why would you believe that?" I said teasingly. I turned off the television, and admired the room one last time before preparing to check out. I let out my Pokémon on hand, and informed them of the situation.

"Lady and Gentlemon... this is how the situation looks right now. There's one of the many cycles of sandstorms going on right now at the deset area, and since none of you are Ground-types, you aren't used to that. We'll walk through the city for a bit, before heading to the gate. So, please decide amongst yourselves which of you would most like to visit the city.

"Well, I'm pretty much already used to most cities so, I think the others should get an opportunity." Sally quickly spoke up. The next to speak was Flare.

"I'm certain they'll be other opportunities for me to be able to be outside, so I can wait."

"Well, then, it's settled. Pendragon and James, will be the ones to explore the city with us for a while." They all nodded, and then returned to their Balls. We then checkout of the hotel and make our way into the city. Pendragon and Lady Jane accompanied us as we made our way through the city, once again getting a few looks due to them being outside of their Poké Balls. We visited the Central Plaza and just watched people for a few hours.

"So many people in a hurry. I'm pretty sure they're all used to it. They probably barely even notice me talking to you all."

"Busy busy busy. The humans of this place seem to not have time to just stop and admire things. The undercity is part of where I explored." Pendragon added.

"You've been all the way to Castelia City? But I met you in Pinwheel Forest." I said surprised. It seemed like it was a long distance for a Pokémon to travel, though I've encountered Pokémon that have migrated across continents before.

"It is not such a far distance for us. Venipede colonies can spread vast distances without interference."

After a few hours, we finally decided to move on to the desert area. When we arrived, the two were returned to their Poke Balls, and then Tensa tied a plastic hard mask around his head, that had the eye holes covered with a transparent hard plastic. I lowered my goggles over my eyes and then we proceeded. As we proceeded through the desert it was evident why there were few people in it. After we were what I assumed was about in the middle of the desert, we were interrupted. Seemingly emerging out of nowhere, but really popping out from the sand, was a Pokemon that I had no knowledge off. I quickly whipped out my Pokédex and it identified it as a Sandile.

"A Ground-type eh? Make sense considering all this sand."

"Raaagh!" The Sandile roared in an attempt to intimidate me.

"Is there a problem?" I said, completely calm. There was no way that a two feet tall crocodile would be able to intimidate me.

"You're not supposed to be here!" It said with an assumed sense of authority.

"I believe I have the right to traverse this desert whenever I please."

"Humans don't come this way during sandstorms!"

"Well, this human does. But, it'd be a bit easier if I had a guide through the desert to the other side though. I'd be out of the desert faster."

The Sandile seemed to ponder this, before finally saying, "Fine, alright, by don't make a habit out of it." We were lead through the desert and when we finally, after what seemed like half a day wandering, managed to reach other other side. The desert was not as big as I thought it was, but of course, I'd never seen it from the air so I would not have had any idea.

"We're here. Now hurry up and get out."

"Before I go... I was just wondering if... you'd maybe consider joining me on my journey?"

"Keh! Why would I even want to join you? You're just another human, passing by."

"Well... first of all... I think you'd make an excellent companion. Plus, if you accompany me, you'll be able to show your strength. Not to mention that you're the first Ground-type I've met here... in addition to have the addition of Dark-type attributes as well. So, what do you say?" I intentionally left out some of what I usually say, and tried a different approach with this Sandile.

"No, I'm fine on my own." It said firmly. I had a feeling that it wouldn't be easy.

"Very well. Perhaps I'll see you again later, but maybe not. Though, other Trainers will certainly try to catch you. I think you'd hate to be in the hands of an incompetent Trainer."

"Keh, you think I can't handle myself?"

"Not at all. But, anyway, I'll be going now." With that, it said nothing and we proceeded to the completed area. I then revealed my Xtransceiver, and activated the GPS. According to the GPS we were around the middle of the desert area. Surprisingly, the first person who I encountered after I got out of the first part of the desert area was Cheren!

"Ah, there you are Kyn. I've been waiting for you. Let me see your Badge Case really quick." I reached into my bag and took it out like he requested. He then opened it to examine the badges inside.

"You've got the Insect Badge now. Let's battle again."

"Alright. I'm willing to battle you again. Let's get started."

The battle commenced, and we both sent out our Pokémon. His first choice was his Pidove, and since I didn't have any Electric-type or Rock-type moves, I merely went with the Normal-type attacks of Lady Jane. He followed up with Pansage, which gave me the opportunity to use Pendragon in battle again, whom luckily landed a critical super effective hit, taking it out in one shot. Of course, being the strategist that he is, he switched to his now evolved Pignite. I however, decided to throw him off, by using Saigo, instead of Sally.

"Oh? This is... most unexpected," was his only comment. His first attack was a completely expected Flame Charge. However, due to Saigo's speed training, he dodged it, avoiding an elemental hit. Once again, completely defying convention, I asked Saigo to use Leaf Tornado. It didn't do much apparent damage at all, but it was enough to have Cheren ask his Pignite to eat a Sitrus Berry.

"Ah, so you did take my advice about using the Berries."

"Yes, they did indeed give me an advantage like you said." He said with a grin. This time he ordered a series of Arm Thrusts and Flame Charges. A lot of these didn't hit however, due to my continued use of Leaf Tornado. Saigo was just a bit stronger than his Pignite. Enough to slightly override the type disadvantage, and do a normal amount of damage. Saigo came out the winner of that battle, but just barely.

"Saigo, that was great... please take a rest now." Saigo nodded, and went back to the sidelines to rest. Cheren though, returned Pignite to his Poké Ball.

"Hm... down to my last... and you still have all but one." He sent out his newly evolved Liepard, which I hadn't seen any others of in a long while.

"Lord James is my choice then." The first move was given to Cheren, who ordered a Sand-Attack She countered with her best Crunch, even though it wasn't as effective as normal, it still did a minor amount of damage. Once again Cheren ordered a Sand-Attack, immediately followed by a Torment. Well that was no problem. Using Work Up twice in a row, followed by a series of Take Downs finished off his Liepard, leaving Lord James barely standing. It was quite a tough battle due to me not having any super effective attacks.

"Well... as usual, you're strong."

"You're getting stronger too Cheren. I don't think I've ever had to push my Pokémon that hard during a battle with you."

"Well thanks. I always strive to improve. But... It's clear to me now why are so tough. You have such an incredible bond with your Pokémon. But... that shouldn't be a problem for me. I can get more out of Pignite and my other Pokémon,

too."

"I have no doubt of that Cheren." I said, agreeing with him. Almost immediately after we finished our conversation my Xtransceiver rang. The Caller-ID identified it as Professor Juniper, so I picked it up after seeing that.

"Hello? Professor Juniper."

"Hello there! Kynexn, do you have a second?" I didn't see why not. We were in the middle of the desert, wandering, so we had plenty of time.

"Yeah I do, and Cheren is with me so I'll patch him in too."

"Professor Juniper, do you need something?" Cheren asked.

"Well, sort of. I have a favor to ask you two. I called Bianca too, but I guess she didn't hear the call. I wonder what she's caught up in. Well, I suppose I'll just have to call her again later. I'll be waiting for you two in front of the gate to Nimbasa City!" There was more to her sentence, but the 'Can you make it there?' was noticeably cut off.

"...Um, hello?! Well, guess that's it. Anyway, Nimbasa City's gate is straight down Route 4. Let's go." The journey down this part of Route 4 was not as bad as the first part where he had to pretty much walk through bare sand, after the incomplete road ended. After we made it to the gate we were greeted by Professor Juniper.

"Hello Kynexn, Cheren! Elesa called and asking me all about Electric-type Pokémon, and I thought about you guys. That's why I wanted to see you. Ta-da! Freebies for you!" She then gave us each a bag that felt a little heavy, but not severely. When we open the bags up, we found... ten Ultra Balls inside! I was completely surprised. I wasn't going to protest after being given free Ultra Balls... though I rarely ever use Ultra Balls.

"If you see a Pokémon that you really like, and want it to join you, be sure to use a good type of Poké Ball. It could be the first and last time you see that Pokémon!"

Cheren hmmed and crossed his arms.

"Please, remember to enjoy your journey, and Kynexn, please enjoy your time here! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go meet Bianca."

"It seems the Professor gave us the Pokédex as a reason to send go on a journey. At least that's what my mom told me. Bianca's mom, and my mom made a request to Professor Juniper. Kynexn, what should we do now? I think I'll show my thanks by catching some Pokémon at Route 4 that I haven't yet caught."

"Be careful Cheren. There's a rather territorial Sandile with a bit of an attitude in there. It might be a bit of a challenge for you."

"Thanks. I'll be careful." Cheren quickly departed to the desert. The bulletin board said that the sandstorm had conveniently died down.

"Right well, you heard what the Professor said. Elesa's interested in Electric-type Pokémon, so you know what comes next, right?"

Tensa nodded. "This means Heji is coming to Isshu."

The next step was to let all of my Pokémon out to explain the situation to them.

"Alright everyone... we're near Nimbasa City. The Gym-Leader there will probably use mostly Electric-types. As such, I need to either have a Ground-type, or one of you with ground-type moves. But, that's not the only issue. I want to bring back one of my other Pokémon, but I can't go over six Pokémon in my party." then I whispered, "Officially that is."

"So, basically, I know I just met some of you, and even some of you have been with me for quite a while but... I'm going to temporarily have to send some of you away." This generated a bit of stirring within the group.

"It's going to be us, isn't it?" Flare said, referring to himself and Lady Jane.

"Well... yes."

"I knew it... you weren't allowing us to battle as much..."

"Flare... please do not think that it has anything to do with your battling ability. I once made the mistake of using only Tensa and my other Sceptile, for a long period of time. Not only did I stunt their development, but... obviously, I did not give them enough attention. I wanted to let you both know, that it is by no means a fault of yours that I am temporarily replacing you. Alright?"

"I understand... but I'll miss you as well. The opportunity to travel with you... for you to explore with me... But... I'll try to contact you as often as possible." This seemed to slightly easy Flare's nerves, but I could tell that he really was affected by this. To make it easier on him, I decided to give him a long drawn out hug. I could tell that he was trying to hold back tears due to being in the group.

"It's alright Flare. You won't be alone. I'll be there with you too."

"Yeah... plus he said he'd talk to us as much as possible."

"I'm glad you understand. Alright, let's go to the Pokémon Center to make the exchange." I said, standing up again. Everyone was returned to their Poké Balls, and as we began to leave, the gate attendant stopped us.

"I've seen some pretty interesting sights in my time here, but I don't think any were quite as interesting as that." She said.

"I suppose not. Normally I wouldn't do that in an area like this, but there was nobody here due to the sandstorm."

"The concern you have for your Pokémon is touching. Most Trainers would just change their line up without a second thought."

"Ah, well... I do have a different approach. I'll be back in a while. I've decided to go get that Sandile."

"Well, goodbye then, see you soon, and have a nice day, all at once!" She said with a wave. I waved back at her and then headed back into the desert. Not even ten minutes from our initial departure were we ambushed by that very same Sandile again. We were surprised from behind, which was odd considering the direction we first came from.

"Ah, the Sandile from before. Have you reconsidered joining me?"

"I've decided that I'll only go with this if I lose a battle."

"Very well. That can be arranged," I said, reaching for Saigo's Poké Ball. I pushed the button and then he emerged.

"So, who is going first?" I asked.

"I'm going first of course," the Sandile said, letting loose a Sand-Attack.

"Saigo, go ahead and use strategy, Delta one." Most of my battle strategies were named after letters of a different Alphabet. Delta one involves light dodging and using attack moves to defend, or using purely defensive moves. Going up the scale involves more levels of dodging and defending to the point of wearing out the opponent stamina wise.

Saigo countered its Sand-Attack with a Leaf Tornado which itself stirred up more sand.

The next move that it used was Torment.

"Oh... what an interesting strategy you have there Sandile... making it so Saigo couldn't use Leaf Tornado on you again for a while. Your strategy is very good."

"Battling other Trainers has given me insights into some of their strategies, allowing me to defeat some that are sometimes far stronger than me."

"You would definitely be very welcome on my team. Anyway, Saigo I can tell this Sandile is going to be difficult... I think you should switch to strategy Alpha two." Saigo switched to an aggressive battle stance. He began moving around the area at an incredibly high rate of speed. The Sandile couldn't keep up with him at first. Saigo leaped high up into the air, his tail glowed green. He positioned his body for a somersault in mid air, to land on the croc with the glowing leaf. Only just in time did the Sandile dodge the attack by digging underground, causing Saigo to his nothing but sand. After emerging, Saigo took a small from it, but it didn't do a lot of damage.

"That's great Saigo, normally that would probably work but, this area is his domain, being full of sand. If you're going to go that route, than he needs to be airborne before you try that again." Saigo nodded in understanding, and began to adjust his strategy.

Saigo did exactly as recommended, and used Vine Whip to attack first, dealing a large amount of damage, and then after the Sandile was stunned, use the Vines to throw it up into the air. He then repeated the mid air somersault and this time connected, knocking it back down the ground. This did a lot of damage, not only due to the type advantage, but also due to the added crashing into the ground. The Sandile tried to get up, but couldn't and so it collapsed and fainted.

"That was a good battle Sai-" but I didn't get to finish his sentence. Saigo started to glow. His body elongated, the main tail leaf that was left over from the Snivy stage to the Servine stage shifted into three smaller leaves at the end of a think tailtip. The traces of arms that were left from the Servine stage migrated back behind his neck. After the glow faded Saigo's new form was completely revealed. His head had grown even more snakelike, and his body was now a complete pale green color. There was a forest green crest in the front and back, as well as two golden royal looking crests just below the forest green one. The forest green crest in the back extended over his pale green body giving him a multicoloured appearance of pale green on the bottom and forest green on the top. The forest green crest had inside it the same royal gold as the other two on the outside, giving it the appearance of being a collar. Overall it looked very regal making him look royal.

"Congratulations Saigo... you evolved!"

"It will take a bit of time to get used to this form." He commented. He then slithered over towards me and then turned around to look at the Sandile. It was definitely knocked out without a doubt. I reached into my pack, and pulled out my vial filled with the dark clear golden healing liquid. Since he was definitely a stronger Pokémon it would take more to revive him. His mouth was open slightly, so all I did was pry it open slightly and the pour about a fourth of the liquid into his mouth. After it went down his throat his eyes instantly opened.

"Welcome back." I said casually.

"He... defeated me..." It said, sound a little bit sad at his loss.

"It's alright... don't feel discouraged. It's difficult to overcome a type disadvantage. So, do you want to come with me yet, or would you like some more time to think?"

The Sandile walked over to me and said, "Go ahead and take me. I deserve it for being weak..." His voice was wavering and it seemed like he was on the verge of crying.

"Sandile... come over here please..." It wasn't an order but a request. He did exactly as I asked and came over to me. I picked him up and gave him a deep hug, not saying anything at all after.

"Ar-aren't you going to put me in one those things?" It said, obviously referring to Poké Balls. This was a situation that I had several different choices in which to deal with it. The fact that he even mentioned Poké Balls if not by name, meant that he had encountered other Pokémon Trainers, which would probably explain his strength. He was probably even close to evolving.

"No... At least not right away. You don't have to go in one at this time. If you do chose to come with me, then just walk near me and the other Trainers won't try to catch you. Now, one of the first things we need to do is get you to your next stage of evolution." I said. He seemed a little cheered up by this but not by much. At this point I put him down and then we continued along the path through the desert, but I could tell that he was still affected by this. Since Saigo was in his final form he might be working with him as well.

I wasn't exactly sure how close he was to evolving, but one thing was for certain he was really, really strong. It was obvious because of the sandstorm that there was going to be very few trainers that day. There were, however, a few trainers with their Pokémon, who like Tensa and I had decided to brave the see of the storm. We did manage to get a small amount of training out of them, but it still wasn't enough for him to evolve.

There were also a few Pokémon that did reveal themselves during the sandstorm, but even still, that was not enough. We figured that if anything, Cheren would more than likely want to battle us at the end of Route 4, and more than likely was waiting for us at the gate, due to the fact that he probably arrived earlier than when the sandstorm hit, and didn't have the goggles that I had and experience to be able to navigate through it. I was still a bit surprised though by those trainers that didn't get 'caught' in the sandstorm but chose to stay anyway. They were probably aiming to be Ground-type specialists someday.

As it turns out my suspicion was correct. Cheren was indeed waiting inside the gate for me.  
Cheren saw the tell-tail signs of my presence, albeit a bit sand blown, something that I'd have to fix later, and then greeted me.

"Hey Kynexn. I've been waiting for you to return. Let's battle again," he said, taking a look at the Sandile that was near me. "Even though it's only been a little while, I'd like a rematch."


	4. Chapter 4: The Resort Desert

"Yeah sure... Let's go ahead. Shall I lead, or will you lead?" I asked, preparing to use the coin flip application if he didn't have an immediate decision. Cheren did surprise me by addressing the issue right away.

"It will of course be you. I've been waiting as I said. Show me your improvements." Cheren said. Another unexpected moment happened when my Sandile suddenly addressed him.

"I want to battle this human's Pokémon." He stated simply. I wasn't surprised, really, I told him I'd help him evolve, and all those trainers and other Pokémon we'd battled hadn't caused him to evolve yet.

"You'll be at more than a slight disadvantage though, Sandile. Unless he's decided to change his rotation." I said, looking down at him. The Sandile gave me a curious look, and I could tell without looking that Cheren was giving me pretty much the exact same look.

"Rotation? I believe I read a bit about something like that. The answer to your thoughts-since it wasn't really a question-is that I have not, though adding more types to my arsenal seems like a good idea. However... I think I'll focus on increasing the strength of my current Pokémon first."

"Well, to answer both of you," I began, "rotation can both be your current line-up, OR how often you use a specific Pokémon in your party. In this particular case, I in essence told this Sandile here," I was very careful not to use the term 'my Sandile' yet, until he was ready, "that I'd include him in the forefront of my rotation for the time being until he evolved, so that's why he wants to battle you. However, Sandile... right now I'm going to ask you to wait for just a bit more. You'll definitely be included in this battle but my first choice is..." There was no real need for dramatic flair, but I decided to just do it anyway. I took out Sally's Poké Ball, and then pushed the button to release her.

She emerged from her Poké Ball and then gave a stretch of her wings. Seeing the Sandile near me and not looking hostile, she decided that he was part of the team and didn't ask as to whether or not he needed to be battled. Of course, she knew that being a Flying-type, she'd have and advantage over him, but I knew something that she didn't, and that was how strong this particular Sandile was."

"Sally, we'll be battling a few of Cheren's Pokémon for today." I said. She jumped up onto my shoulder for a while, and then waited. "Alright, we're ready, now send out your Pokémon."

"I was planning on starting out with him regardless of what you chose, to test a strategy of mine so... here he is." Cheren took out a Poké Ball and sent out a familiar looking bird. His own Pidove. It seemed that he was planning on keeping her unevolved for a bit longer for some reason. It could have been that he was doing it to strengthen his evolved form so that he'd have the power to use Air Slash like me did, a lot earlier than if he evolved sooner.

"Sally, use number one, followed by number three." She began flapping her wings, kicking up a pretty simple and basic, Gust attack. Being surrounded by sand, had a different effect than being in other areas of course. One could call it similar to a mini sandstorm. After this, she quickly followed up with, a series of Air Slashes.

Cheren not being accustomed to this new style-to him-of giving commands, was completely thrown off. It took him a few seconds to react to it,in addition to the fact that the mini sandstorm was coming at them, but he managed to give the command of an Air Cutter. As the attacks collided, it was apparent that my combination, was going to be the winner in the struggle of attacks. Even more sand was kicked up by this collision, to which I was lucky that I had my goggles. Cheren however was not so fortunate and had to cover himself with his sleeve.

Immediately after the both of them could see again, another Air Cutter was ordered. His Pidove Was rather damaged by the attack, and so a simple Gust was all that I ordered to counter it. It wasn't really that difficult to see coming, but he had apparently decided on at least trying to reduce the damage from her attacks, and had his Pidove perform another Air Cutter.

"That's enough for now, Sally." I said, judging simply by the lack of power in that last attack that he had weakened considerably. I looked down at the Sandile and then he took that as has cue to start listening to my commands. "I think a Crunch or two will do."

He was in no condition to fly either and all Cheren could do was attempt to land more Flying-type moves. The Sandile quickly dug underground, something that I didn't expect, and neither did Cheren, but that was one of the more intricate strategies that I had... letting the Pokémon decide their approach based on my suggestions, and Cheren was just now experiencing this. He emerged near the startled Pidove, who didn't have time to respond, as the Dark energy filled the Sandile's fangs, and made contact with his body. That was it; it was too much, and he fainted. Of course, I didn't expect to witness two evolutions in the same day, or even from the same Pokémon. The evolution energy enveloped the Sandile, causing his body to glow that signature white glow, before his form began to change. He first stood upright, and then his legs changed to match his stance. They grew longer, as his his arms and then his tail.

"Mmm... Congratulations on your evolution. I told you I wanted to help you get to the your next stage." I said, and then I went over to him, and started looking him over. "Hm, I wonder what your evolution is called..." I took out my Pokédex, as did Cheren, and the both read out the species name of Krokorok, as well as a tiny bit of information about them.

"Hah, is that what you humans have to say about us? Well, that's a pretty bland Pokédex entry." He said.

"Fascinating... That's the third evolution that I've witnessed so far. Pokémon truly are fascinating creatures..." Cheren said, with much bewonderment. I chuckled, figuring that I'd have to snap him back to reality. We were still in a battle after all. It turns out that I didn't have to. He decided to use his next Pokémon after that.

"Hey... How about I give you a nickname though, until I can think of a nice proper name for you. It'd be something like Stripes." I said. He turned around for a few seconds and said, "Yeah... sure that'd be good for now."

"Alright. My next choice is Pansage." Cheren took the Poké Ball off of his belt and then threw the ball up into the air, releasing it, before catching the ball as it fell back down to him.

"Hm... well. Stripes, I guess you can battle his Pansage too. Go ahead." I said, and folded my arms. Once again, I left it for him to decide.

Stripes decided to start of with a tried and true Crunch attack but... I noticed that he held back a bit. He put a minimum amount of Dark type energy into it, making it practically a 'Normal' bite, even reducing the power, I noticed. His Pansage took a direct hit, which caused it to recoil in pain. He waited this time, judging to see what Cheren would do next.

"Pansage, use Vine Whip." Cheren ordered. His Pansage used Vine Whip as ordered but Stripes had something else in mind. As the attack extended, Stripes quickly reacted and grabbed them.

"Now remember stripes, you're not supposed to be going all out. Though, you shouldn't go easy either."

He acknowledged my suggestion, and held back on his next attack. It was another Crunch, But like last time the bare minimum amount of Dark-Type energy was put into it. Even Cheren could tell that even with that little amount his Pansage was damaged highly.

"Hmm, I think that's enough for now, Stripes. That was quite a turnover you had." I said. He let go of Cheren's Pansage and then walked back over to me.

The next Poké Ball that I took out was Pendragon's. After he was released he took a few seconds to spin around. When he settled down, I knew that he was ready to fridge orders.

"Pendragon go ahead and give him a good nip to finish him off eh?" I said. It was apparent to me that Cheren was debating whether or not to pull his Pansage from battle. He didn't withdraw him from battle though. Pendragon rolled around in a circle around him, and then delivered the finishing blow. That last crunch from Stripes had really wiped out his Pansage. He was unable to move at all after it, but he was still standing so he was counted as being able to battle. I planned on keeping Pendragon out as long as possible so that he would have enough exposure, however, his next Pokémon, was his recently evolved Pignite, which at this current point, was more than likely able to use Fire-type attacks.

Pendragon made a sound that was similar to, and may as well have been a snort. "Well, I don't need you to tell me that I'm at a disadvantage with this fire-pig."

"Actually Pendragon, I'm going to show you that type isn't always everything. Saigo's up next." Saigo emerged from his Poké Ball, but he was only slightly surprised. He quickly went into a battle mode though, and waited for the order.

"I take it this is another one of your odd opportunities, Kyn? I look forward to taking it.I figure we won't let each other down in this particular case." Saigo said, turning to face his opponent. The Pignite flared smoke and fire from its nostrils. His Pignite was thinking about what I'd said, remaining unusually silent. Cheren started thinking about his next strategy, something that he was doing more and more lately, which I was glad for.

"Well now, let's get started. Saigo, use Leaf Blade, and Leaf Tornado." I ordered. Saigo quickly used his speed, and moved behind his Pignite, which of course caused him to turn around. As he turned around he was greeted with a Leaf Blade to the face before Cheren could order a counter attack. The Pignite was surprised by the action, clearly not expecting this much of a challenge from a Grass-type.

"Cheren ordered a Flame Charge, which of course was the most logical move to so. However, once again, Saigo dodged. That was pretty much all he really could do, since the other moves would be easily dodged. Well eventually his Pignite landed a hit with a flame charge, that allowed to at least have a better chance at hitting Saigo. Saigo's speed was significantly reduced by the time the battle was over, and he'd spent most of his time dodging that he'd actually worn himself out.

"It seems like all he pretty much did was run around. If that's all it takes to overcome a type disadvantage, than it should be easy." Pendragon said. I gae a sigh, and then turned towards him.

"There's more to it than just that, but yes, he did dodge a lot here. Now, obviously if he were to battle more, even a Pokémon with a disadvantage to him could beat him, if they were more experienced, and even he knows that." I said, before turn back to Saigo, "You did good today. Take a rest for now."

Saigo moved back behind me, and over to Pendragon. "Y'know, if you weren't such a grump, I think we'd be able to have fun together giving each other rides on our backs. Me especiall with you, now that I'm a servine... but obviously the time for me to ride on your back has long passed, until you at least reach your final form."

"Okay, Cheren, that exchange that those two had... that image is absolutely adorable, I'm going to tell you exactly what Saigo just said. By the way Saigo, humans kinda do that too, we call it a piggyback riding, which also applies to many forms of transportation nowadays, and we also refer to piggybacking." I gave Cheren the translation of what Saigo had said, and he chuckled at it. Cheren had used almost all of his Pokémon at this time, and I had planned on, by the end of it all, having all of my Pokémon to be able to meet his, and for him to of course meet them as well.

I figured that a lot of people would think of doing such as thing as that would be a huge strategic disadvantage, but that wasn't important to me at all. If anything, it just showed how single minded those people were, focusing on how best to beat their opponent instead of having fun and bonding with their friends and Pokémon, but then again, there were all different types of people and Pokémon, so it would be foolish to expect everyone to follow the same type of path.

"Well, I guess I'm down to my final Pokémon. My Liepard. I guess you'd be using Pendragon for this?" Cheren guessed. He was definitely correct. I figured that he'd gotten enough time to recover, and if not then I'd suggest that he eat a sitrus berry at some point during the battle.

"Pendragon, I trust that you'll give this Liepard a good show and show him your Steamroller attack." It wasn't an order at all, but definitely a suggestion, but he knew it to be such that in regular circumstances it may as well have been, but he was being given the liberty of choosing other moves, to surprise both him, Cheren, and the Liepard.

To start off, Pendragon did his signature flourish, by spinning himself into a flurry of shell and spikes. Since we'd both been through Pinwheel Forest, I imagined that Cheren's-at the time-Purrloin, would have encountered super-effective moves, knew what a Steamroller attack was since they'd been into Burgh's Gym.

His Liepard shifted his pose into a battle ready one, after Pendragon did his flourish, and to both of us, we knew that that was the signal for the start of the battle.

"Alright Liepard, start off with Fury Swipes." Cheren ordered. He quickly rushed Pendragon, showcasing his speed to the opposing 'mon. The hit series took off quite well, surprising both of us. Pendragon was literally stunned and so he didn't actually attack back. Cheren wasn't sure whether or not he should continue, but the Liepard turn around to him, then he knew.

While he was recovering, his Liepard start kicking up sand for the Sand-Attack, to attempt to further incapacitate Pendragon. Lucky for him, he managed to come out of his daze and countered. It wouldn't really have done much anyway, since for the most part, he could simply just close his eyes. The counter involved him spinning at near full speed, becoming a blur. As the sand hit him, it scattered everywhere but its intended target, which was his eyes.

"Heh, thanks for the sand blast. My plates needed a good polish." Pendragon said. The tone in which he said, it indicated that if he were able to, there would be a huge smirk on his face.

"You... you cocky bug! Just because my species isn't know for Rock-type moves doesn't mean I won't find some other way to stomp you flat!" The Liepard retorted. Of Course I knew of a way that he would be able to actually counter Pendragon. Assist. For reasons that I could only guess, Cheren had not utilized his Purrloin's ability to use it, and it showed, since even evolved his Liepard did not know.

"We'll see about that..." Pendragon prepared for another attack, also awaiting Cheren's orders so he could decide what to do. However, once again, Cheren did not give any orders. This time, he simply pointed at Pendragon, which was a bit of surprise, but one that made me a bit happy.

His Liepard started to make another charge, and Pendragon prepared to defend, but just as he was about halfway to him, Cheren did something that surprised both of us. "Liepard, hold it!"

Both Pendragon and his Liepard were thrown off balance, with Pendragon nearly falling over in a comedic way.

"What?" Both Pendragon and his Liepard said simultaneously.

"Liepard, it's become clear to me that at this time... we can't defeat his Whirlipede. We're going to go get the Bolt Badge next. But first I want you all to meet Kyn's Pokémon. I have a feeling that we're going to be seeing them a lot more." Cheren took off the remainder of his filled Poké Balls and released them all at once. I of course did the same with my Pokémon. Saigo was rather eager to be outside again. It crossed my mind that I'd probably be giving hi more time outside in addition to the normal rotation. I started the introductions and Cheren did the rest.

By the time we finished introducing everyone it was clear that Cheren was going to become just as strong as I was when I ran through the Pokéon League in Hoenn the second time. The only issue was whether or not he saw it as well. If only Bianca could be developed in this way... but based on the way she last greeted me I figured that it would more than likely turn out opposite and that she'd be able to hold her own in a battle of moderate difficulty, but not much beyond that. She seemed more like she was headed towards being Professor Juniper's assistant at the rate she was doing tasks for her and everything.

"I'll be seeing you later. I'm sure you want to get the Bolt Badge right away now." I waved goodbye to him, and he bowed and then returned his Pokémon to their Poké Balls with the exception of his Pignite.

We walked together for a while, but after we got back to the gate we parted ways. We allowed him a head start, and we took a bout half an hour watching the board, and the television. About ten minutes later, we headed towards Nimbasa City.


	5. Chapter 5: The Bolt Badge

As we exited the gate, a bit of commotion was happening outside the entrance to the city. The group had decided which ones of them would be staying outside during the visit to Nimbasa city. In the distance, we could see the signature of Team Plasma, with their uniforms that made them stand out amongst even the strangest Isshu crowd. After we got within earshot we managed to catch part of a conversation.

One of the grunts, shoved the old man and I was surprised that he didn't fall over and break something. After he shoved him, he began harassing him verbally again.

"Gramps! We know you run the Day Care! How do we know? Because we're Team Plasma!"

Another male grunt chipped in with a variation of the usual spiel. "We are taking Pokémon away from people. Since you work that the Day Care, we figure you must have a lot of Pokémon! Hand 'em over!" Of course, their logic was flawed, considering the fact that they would have no clear indication of what types of Pokémon Trainers left their Pokémon at the Day Care at all.

The Day-Care Man responded back incredulously, essentially saying exactly what was on my mind at the time. "What kind of Nonsense is this?!" After that he looked around. It was odd indeed, that there was no one around to help him at the time, considering the fact that we were in Nimbasa City. Though to be fair to the people of the city, it was just a little bit outside of the entrance to the city, and not really deep inside of it yet. Perhaps that was why. I honestly had no idea; it was my first time here after all. Eventually though his search pointed him towards me, considering that I was indeed standing around, and Tensa and the rest were beside me.

"Oh! A strong-looking Trainer! Please help me!" I chuckled inwardly. I was the only Trainer around, but there was literally no way to tell what someone's strength was by first glace. Judging a book by its cover. I guess that if I were younger like say, ten years old or so it would have been something of a confidence booster. I also had a feeling that in my case it was due to the fact that my Pokémon were outside of their Balls and that I was actually an adult.

Of course, I was rarin' to get a crack at them, as was Tensa. "Elder... you don't know how much I would love to." I folded my arms, and waited to at least let them talk. It always made for a much more interesting battle if they got their confidence up by figuring that they were doing the best for the Pokémon like the manipulated people they were. Perhaps I'd eventually find someone in Team Plasma besides N who actually had the ability to still think for themselves and not just spout out the same gibberish that they hear from their 'leaders'.

The first grunt spoke up again and I could tell that he they were already intending to try and battle me. "If you're going to get in our way, we'll take your Pokémon, too!"

I let out an incredibly maniacal chuckle. I'd had my fun for now, and it was time to get serious. "Team Plasma must not be very well organised if you don't know who I am." I wasn't really trying to brag but, by now, I had defeated plenty of their members and unless they were all working individually, which would take the team out of Team Plasma, then I couldn't really figure out why they wouldn't have a least warned their other members about the possibility of encountering me.

Once more the first grunt insisted upon digging his own grave further. "Why would it matter who some kid is?"

I glared at him, almost getting ready to actually physically assault him myself. No doubt they wouldn't be expecting it, considering that my Pokémon were around me. That was also another reason why I was curious about them continuing to sink themselves deeper and deeper. "It is because this 'some kid' has vowed to take down every single Team Plasma member, if necessary."

After much scrutinization of me, as well as Tensa in the matter one of them seemed to recognize me which did indeed surprise me. "Wait... wait... I've heard of this kid... This went downhill fast! So I think... We'd better... Ruuuun! Let's hide out at the amusement park!"

So they had chosen to retreat instead of battling me. I was fine with that, for the time being. "By all means, hide if it makes you feel better."

The grunts hastily retreated into the amusement park. It WOULD have been quite a strategic move considering that there would be hundreds of people there, if not for the fact that they were wearing those completely identifiable uniforms.

The Day-Care Man bowed to me deeply, and thanked me. "Thank you so much! Please take this as a token of my appreciation. It's a brand-new bike. I'd always planned on riding it around Nimbasa City... But I never got the chance to. I don't want it to go to waste, it is a pretty nice bike." It was odd but perhaps at the same time not so odd. I pictured it something along the lines of that maybe he was able to ride a bike but eventually he developed a severe case of debilitating Arthritis, which would account for why a perfectly new bicycle would not be able to be ridden at all by him. If that was the case then... he was being a complete trooper about it in the sense of not showing it in public. Instead of thinking too much on a topic that would probably depress me to think about what it would be like for me if it happened to me after I did retire.

It was something that was... quite interesting. It seemed to actually have the technology of minimization for Poké Balls integrated into it. My old bike was collapsible, and that was why it fit inside of a backpack, in addition to the fact that I was smaller back then. "This bicycle is the latest thing, is it? It's way more advanced than my old bike then. Not to mention that I'll be able to actually ride a bike around again. Thank you very much."

A sudden flash of remembrance came over Day-Care Man, upon really getting the chance to scrutinize me again, not that I was actually closer to him. "Come to think of it... I think I've seen you before, on Route 3! Yes... I'm sure of it."

"Hm, you're right. I stayed at your Day Care about a week or so back. I didn't really check anyone in so you didn't have to ID me and such. I hope your business is doing alright and that Team Plasma's propaganda isn't hurting it. Luckily they're so under the radar in terms of massive media attention. But you know how things are, right? Social media and all that. That's exactly what they're aiming for. Well anyway, enough of my one sided rambling... here. Let me give you my Xtransceiver number in case I'm in the area again, and they give you more trouble." I took out my Xtransceiver and then set it to Passerby mode, and he did the same. We touched the screens together, and after that all my contact information, and his information were shared.

"Really, thank you. I'm going to head back down south. I'm finished with Nimbasa City for a while and I feel that my heart can't handle the coasters like I used to. I'm definitely starting to feel my age..." With that he gave a wave, and then turned away and headed back through the gate that I'd just left.

Unbeknownst to me, Bianca just so happened to be heading UP from the gate. I headed further into the city, but she noticed Tensa and the others, and basically sprinted to get to me.

Bianca called out in her loudest, but still ladylike voice. "Yoo-Hoo! Hey, Kynexn!" I did turn around at being addressed, and then waited for her. At least she wasn't wearing those heel sandals that she first wore when we were about to set out for our first journey. I'd also advised Cheren on his choice of outfit. I had the feeling that he was trying to present himself an intelligent, well formed young man. For this reason I advised him to wear his traditional 'Eastern' outfit. Like me, Cheren wasn't an Isshu native. I was born in Hoenn, and Cheren was born in a region west of me, but not quite as far as Kalos* or Isshu itself.

"What's going on Bianca? Do you want something?" I said, turning around to face her. I really couldn't tell with Bianca but, it seemed like she would be the type that probably wouldn't go on any of the roller coasters, or really do much in the amusement part.

"Well, no, I just wanted to say hi to you, to let you know that I was here. After all there's lots of people here but if I do need something I'll be sure to call you so we can meet somewhere."

"Yeah, I can understand that. I'll more than likely be calling you if I need something as well. Why are you in Nimbasa city anyway? I thought you were stopping your badge collecting journey."

"Well, The professor told me that Nimbasa City has a lot of things to see and do-the amusement park, Big Stadium, Small Court, and the Battle Subway! I'm going to see the Pokémon Musical first! See you later!" She waved, and then headed off past me.

We headed off to the Pokémon Center after that to fulfill something that was long overdue. Once we were inside the Pokémon Center I started up a call with the Pokémon Professor that was currently taking care of Heji.

"Hello, Professor Birch. Would you please go get Heji?" I was actually looking forward to this. It had been many years since I'd seen Heji face-to-face and even longer since we'd been on a journey together. Plus, even though we were supposed to be keeping it a bit of a secret, the reaction to seeing me talking to Heji via the videophone was going to be quite humorous. But... then again, seeing as how it was Nimbasa city it may just be shrugged off.

After a little while Professor Birch returned with Heji in tow. On the screen, the camera shifted from him to Heji, and that was when I greeted him. "Hey. It's been a while. How you doin' Heji?"

His expression shifted to a bit of a cat frown. Of course, this proved to do the exact opposite of the effect which was intended. "That is so like you to say that it's been a while. Of course it's been a while. Anyway, I've been doing fine. The Hoenn region is quite interesting. How far into Isshu are you?"

"Not very. I'm only up to the the third badge. I've already filled my lineup."

Heji's frown turned into a coy smile. "I recognize that pattern. You're training them beyond League level." He placed his paws on the console carefully then rested his head in his paws. He basically was mimicking what could be considered a bored pose for human.

"You'd be right about that. Actually I am going to be bringing you to the Isshu region."

"Interesting. I suppose I'll get a chance to explore with you then. I'll let him know that I'm ready.."

"Right, see you soon."

Heji stepped down then Professor Birch kept the connection open while the call was shifted to the transfer room. He sent back into his ball, and was placed into the machine. The process was initiated and completed in less than a second.

It was quite a surprise to both Birch and myself, when Heji forced himself out of his ball, and immediately pounced me. I chucked, but he wasn't finished yet. He started nuzzling and licking me, something that was rather out of character for him.

"Well, I see you're still happy to see me." Of course I knew that one of the things he was doing in addition to showing affection was renewing his scent claim, with Tensa's. I didn't mind of course, it was only natural, considering that we were all part of his 'pack'. At this point I was sure I smelled more like a Pokémon than a human, but all but a few humans would be able to tell anyway.

"Hello again Heji. Let's show Elesa all about advantages and disadvantages eh?" Tensa grinned and gave Heji a few pats on the head affectionately, then turned towards the door.

Heji finally got off me and quickly headed towards the door. I was quickly back on my feet and headed towards the door as well. Of course with Heji out, that didn't leave many natives in a spot. I asked them to vote on it and they choose Stripes. Sally was also let out since she was a bird and could fly around anyway.

Stripes was chosen more or less because of the fact that he was from the desert. It would be his first time in a big city like this. I spent a few minutes explaining to him the basics of human settlements so that he'd get a basic sense of scale. He caught on rather quickly, and as such, I figured that he'd be rather quick to pick up my battling style.

After we exited the Pokemon Center Sally took flight and headed high into the air. Even though Stripes understood the concepts that were given to him, he still was a little bit nervous around so many humans.

"Calm down, Krok. You are with us. Stand closer to me, if you wish. Just know that at this point, you can take off one of their limbs with a single swipe of your claws. The same applies with your jaws. They have more reason to fear you then you do them. Especially if you use moves which can target multiple opponents. We'll get to that a bit later. I'd give them one warning. However, I can't be watching all the time." I tried to continue to reassure him that everything would be alright, even going as far as giving him one of what would be many hugs. Of course, as I suspected, he was surprised by the action.

"What are you doing?" I chuckled and answered him rather simply.

"It's called a hug. It's something humans and some Pokémon do for many reasons. One... is for comfort. The feeling of a loved one's heart, the sound of it... knowing they are near..." I knew it was only temporary, but he seemed to calm down enough that he wouldn't panic.

We spent a good portion of our time exploring the city, considering that there wasn't really much drive to stay in the amusement park. Being the food enthusiast that I was, I took them to a lot of restaurants.

One particular restaurant caught our attention though, due to the age of the restaurant as well as the distinguishing feature of seemingly bring catered more towards Pokémon than humans. It was also another opportunity for me to explain more about our culture.

"Most people don't expect Pokémon and humans to sit at the same table to eat. Of course there are still some cities and towns where there is still that cultural combination..." At about this time, our menus were brought out and laid out before us. The special difference between these menus and regular restaurant menus was the amount of detail put into the ingredients list, and the fact that there was an enlarged picture of the dishes as well as thumbnails of the ingredients of the dish.

Most restaurants give you a general idea of the ingredients, but not all of them. But, even if every were listed, people still wouldn't necessarily be able to make it at home.

Many reasons included things such as the cooking equipment itself,

A streak of green caught our attention amongst all of the hundreds of potential similar people. N was pretty distinct with his hat, his cube, and his long green hair, being easily recognizable. He wasn't moving towards us so we went to him. He looked particularly relaxed, almost as if he was expecting us.

N - You're looking for Team Plasma, right? They ran into the amusement park. Come with me.

Almost immediately I flared up at the notion that they hadn't retreated far away yet. "What?! Why are they still here?!"

I followed N, and he lead me to the Ferris wheel. Stripes also followed us to the Ferris Wheel as well, at my request, so that he could see Nimbasa City from a perspective that was similar to Sally's, like he'd never seen before. I was so glad that he wasn't afraid of heights. That is still a stereotype you know, not all Ground-types are afraid of heights.

N was really convincing with his approach, but it seemed as if there was more to what he was doing. "They're not here. Let's ride the Ferris wheel and see if we can spot them."

I was cooling down slightly. It wouldn't do to be frustrated, despite how annoyed I was at the two grunts. "This is a good idea. We can see the whole amusement park from there... and they really stand out, unless they're in a building, or something like that." Of course this also meant that Heji would be able to track them even inside that building, but I kept his presence just as hidden as for Elesa.

N started going off on a strange tangent, that wasn't related to Team Plasma at all, but I let him speak anyway. Might as well since we were just looking anyway, and I didn't have anything important to say either. "I love Ferris wheels The circular motion... The mechanics... They're like collections of elegant formulas."

He paused for a short bit, as we neared the top. "First, I must tell you... I am the King of Team Plasma."

His sentences were slow, and drawn out, which in a way was slightly annoying, but now that he'd mentioned Team Plasma again... my interest had piqued. "Ghetsis asked me to work with him to save the Pokémon." I sighed quietly to myself, but again, decided to let him talk. It was always better to let people talk without interruption, in terms of things like this. More information was gained that way.

"I wonder how many Pokémon exist in this world..."

With the purpose of making it even more clear why I was on this relative crusade against seemingly N, and actually Team Plasma, I began to try and instill a sort of.. friendship in him. "N I've got a secret for you, that I'm glad to give you. No other humans in this region know it."

N's eyebrows raised, and he shifted slightly in the seat. "Oh? What is it that you feel you can confide in me?"

I let out a deep sigh, and closed my eyes. I figured his reaction would be one of a negative one, considering his views on Pokémon Trainers and Poké Balls. "Tensa and I... are mates."

N was extremely surprised, his eyes clearly showing something that was a mix between disbelief, and incredible bewonderment.

N finally spoke after analysing what I said thoroughly. "Mates as in...?"

Again, I let out a sigh. Perhaps it was relief, but there was also slight dread that he would say that he didn't believe me. "Yes N, that."

N actually smiled really brightly. It seems he was analysing my vocal patterns, and face, to see if I was lying. "Interesting. I severely misjudged you. Perhaps

We talked for a short while, whilst the Ferris Wheel was slowly coming around. We never saw any sign of Team Plasma.

Two grunts came up to us as we exited the Ferris Wheel. The first grunt cried out almost as one would expect a dog that has been left only for a few minutes, but to it it seemed like an hour. "My lord N!"

The second grunt was a bit less of a hopeless case. "You're safe, sire!"

N seemed like his purpose was renewed, one way or another, to the point that he seemingly tuned out the grunts. "...Now then, Kynexn, do you follow my logic?'

I nodded, before replying simply. "Yes I do."

N let out yet another gracious smile. "Ah. Then... The future I envision..."

"...It's not going to happen, N," I quickly interrupted him, "but that doesn't mean that your quest will go unrewarded. I can't help but feel, despite your clear genius, you are also a bit naive."

"Regardless... there's no problem." Addressing the two grunts that were nearby, he added, "You're part of the people we brought in to help us save the Pokémon. So, you're under my protection, as well. You two, go, quickly, and let my battle cover your I can't beat you here and now, but I'll battle you to buy time for these members of Team Plasma to flee."

We were faced with a Sandile, Darumaka, Sigilyph, and Scraggy. Needless to say, we came out victorious, with Tensa even contributing this time with a tail Slam of his.

N grunted in frustration, before muttering, "The result was the same but... you... who are you? You are interesting. But I have a future that I must change. And, for that future... I'll defeat the Champion and become unbeatable, unlike any other! I'll make all Trainers free their Pokémon! Just try and stop me! If you want to be together with Pokémon, your only hope is to collect the Badges from each area and head for the Pokémon League."

I folded my arms together and let out a huge sigh, thinking on how best to phrase this so that he would be able to see how serious I was about this sort of thing. "N... you and I share some ideals, but we just can't let you do that. Like I told them, even if I have to tear down every... single... member... of Team Plasma... I WILL stop you. I'm sure there are a few good men who joined because they really do feel like you seem to do with Pokémon, if not as direct, but at the same time, some are just blatantly abusing their position under that guise. How do you think that Munna that was kicked by one of your grunts felt? Well, I can tell you that she was crying out for her companion the whole time, begging for them to stop. The reason why... they wanted Dream Mist. As for the matter of who I am... that's another reason why you will never beat me. I'm the former champion of two regions. Now, hurry off to your Castle, N."

N recoiled in surprise at the revelation that I knew about his apparently secret castle, seemingly even moreso at the fact that I would dare imply that any member of Team Plasma could act that way, let alone do what I described, despite seeing it with my own eyes. "But... you shouldn't know about that... perhaps it is good that I distracted you, since I can only imagine what you would have done to those men..."

With emphasis, I stretched out the single letter that was what I knew to be his name. "Heji still can track them down regardless, even through buildings. You did exactly that, buying them time."

N finally retreated, after being thoroughly defeated. I couldn't tell a damn bit what was going on in that head of his, but it seemed like every turn I was proving something wrong about the world he knew and grew up in. It made me want to learn more about his past. He was such a strange human, not like any I'd ever met before, and a bit more like myself than I would care to admit.

After that encounter, we'd thrashed the Team Plasma members still in the area, accepted N'S admission, and finally made our way to the gym. Luckily we'd finished eating and our stomachs had settled. All of us were excited, and Stripes would be getting to see his first Gym battle. Considering that Elesa likely dealt with Ground-types on a regular basis, I figured it would be a great surprise for Heji to be the one to battle Elesa to first see Stripes, then to bring out Heji. Elesa was probably close to being a near fanatic of Electric types as I was of Fire-types.

For the surprise, Heji had to be returned to his ball. The situation was explained and so Heji went back in his ball temporarily. Stripes was accompanied by Tensa on the roller coaster, which was quite an experience for him as well. I did congratulate him on his strong stomach, and sense of balance. Being able to quickly recover from a balance issue was something that was rather key to my overall strategy.

It may seem a bit silly to have a roller coaster as part of my training but, many of the elements of combat can be found in a roller coaster ride. Sure it was unconventional, but it also was a clever way of disguising training as fun. Since the roller coaster was high up, Stripes was able to get an appreciation for the view from higher than he'd ever been able to before in his life. This particular roller coaster was an interesting one due to the fact that it went even higher than the Ferris wheel, giving not only a complete view of the park, but a good portion of the surrounding area as well. Not that there was much besides forest and desert anyway. It was also fun seeing his reactions to the various loop de loops, since there was no reason why in his regular before life he would have been upside down like that. Seeing Stripes get excited like this gave me a certain sense of satisfactions. Of course, this also still doubled as a way to keep an eye out for errant Team Plasma members while waiting for the appointment with Elesa.

Once the allotted time arrived, we all started discussing strategy, and going over various counter-strategies. Stripes was a quick learner, something that I figured could be attested to his base survival instincts and overall personality. Going over strategies ahead of time allowed for near instant adaptation to many different scenarios. Considering that Elesa was actually a celebrity and thus what I am starting to call part time Gym Leaders, one could see how it would be easy to underestimate them. One of the many things I've learned in my seven years of training is to never underestimate my opponents, no matter how weak they may appear to be.

It was decided that Stripes would lead this particular round until changes were deemed necessary. It would have been clear that using Stripes was an obvious strategy, and I expected her to act accordingly. However, when we finally arrived, we were met with an assistant.

The assistant was very apologetic, due to how long we'd waited, and so he introduced us to something interesting.

"It's called a complimentary battle, sir. Instead of standard league rules, you can have your battle, but if you lose, you don't have to forfeit any prize money. In addition, if you so choose you can also have your opponent call out their Pok'emon ahead of time, and, whew, what a list, also time-out to use any healing items that you might have." With the way he sounded, complimentary battles were a thing that happened often at this gym.

"I think that that sounds like a battle that I would be interested in. Am I going to be battling you or... or is it going to be like a few others in which the typical trainers line up in droves?" Giving Stripes some extra practice ahead of time, with no setbacks, couldn't hurt at all.

"I used to be a trainer a long time ago, but that is something that has left me. Instead, I take a joy in seeing the spark in upcoming trainers. For this, you will be battling said upcoming trainers. Or maybe even just one, it depends on... how late our dear Elesa is." It seemed as if barely anybody could resist Elesa's 'charm', and if she were a Pokémon one could definitely say that her "attract" worked on more than just males.

"Well, then I'm going to be upfront with you, in terms of things like a spark, I've already ignited, but I'm not above thinking that that ignition can't be (snuffed out). So, I look forward to seeing both Stripes' and these trainer's potential. Of course, he's a Ground type so there's going to be an advantage over everyone except... what was that yellow squirrel... Emolga? I think you're going to see an interesting show."

The assistant didn't reply except, perhaps, a light 'Hm.' to himself. Our first trainer came to us soon after. From his style of dress, it was apparent that he was of a certain appearance of class, being in a fully white suit, fully pressed, and completely flawless shoes, shined and polished so thoroughly that they almost looked fake, or that he was literally so rich that every day he put on a different pair of shoes, and had a shoe closet of one hundred or more shoes.

"You don't get dizzy on the roller coaster do you? Well I'm about to dazzle and dizzy you with my Pokémon's blinding speed!" The boy's challenge rang out excitedly, but at the same time, there was a different sort of energy that came from it. Something to definitely investigate later.

"Mmm I look forward to it! So, kid..., what's your name? I am one who goes by the name of Kynexn." It wasn't a lie, I definitely was looking forward to seeing how Stripes handled the situation, as well as whether or not I might find someone that had a different strategy than the simple ones I'd seen so far, with the exception of Burgh, and his associated trainers.

"They call me Rolan, but I like Rol more, nice short, sweet, and to the point, easy to remember." He dusted himself off in a seemingly show-offy manner. Other than that, it was the only pretentious thing that I'd seen or heard from him. Even still though, that wasn't going to stop me.

In the meanwhile of waiting, I went over the strategy one final time, in my head, and asked Stripes to do the same. For this particular bout... I was going to definitely throw people off because I would be not revealing the special surprise for Elesa, or the battle 'style' that I had developed.

"My first Pokémon is going is going to be Zebstrika." Rolan said, taking a Poké Ball of of his belt. Surprisingly it was not a Luxury Ball, as one might have expected for someone wanting to flaunt their riches.

"Well as you might be aware, I'm not going to not take advantage of a type advantage that I have so my choice is going to be my Krokorok, Stripes." I said, after nodding to him. He walked into view and gave his arms a slight rotation, as well as pounding his fists together.

"I'm all ready to go. It's my first time, so be gentle alright?" Of course, Stripes was overconfident, that was something that he likely inherited from the fact that he'd already beaten so many trainers in the Resort Desert. It wouldn't be very good for him to win all of his battles effortlessness, because then he would get cocky and overconfident. A trap that I was often tempted to fall into due to the fact that very few people could counteract my semi-unique battle style.

The Blitzle made a rather snarky comment, that just exuded cockiness, which was a complete opposite to its Trainer. From what I could at least pick up from Cilan, they were a bit of an odd match up.

"Ohho, it is so on... you're going down hard." Stripes readied his battle pose, and prepared for the call of the battle to start.

"Are the participants ready?" We both gave our approval. "Then... begin!" The floor judge raised and lowered his arm signaling that the battle had officially begun.

"Stripes, show them your Crunch!" I ordered. It always felt odd when I reverted back to using this battle style, but I explained to them that it was necessary in some situations, and they understood. It made it that much more freeing when they were allowed to be themselves in battle after a certain point.

I was immediately surprised by the fat that a Quick Attack didn't come our way, since it was one of the most common ways to lead a battle. Stripes rushed at the Blitzle straightforward, not making any effort to maintain a pattern at al.

Of course, to no surprise, the other Trainer ordered the Blitzle to dodge, but with an added bit about Nitrous Charge. Nitrous Charge... a bit of an interesting move, but now I was getting to see it with my own eyes. The Blitzle began stomping in place, and just for a brief moment, so quick that it was literally at the speed of light, a series of sparks of electricity surrounded the zebra, before the air around it seemingly combusted.

"Stripes, quickly, counter with Dig!" It was an interesting command, as there was no dirt, sand, or anything to really give the attack and added elemental bonus. Stripes didn't stop at all, keeping his moment, but what he did do, was change what he did once the Blitzle was in range. Instead of essentially diving right into the flames, he dived under the flames, going under the Blitzle, with a slight degree of difficulty, due to their size difference, and essentially knocked it up into the air with the motions of a normal emergence from the exit hole that Dig would normally produce. Not only was the damage already minimal due to his ground typing, but going under the flames essentially negated very much all of the heat effects.

Since the move was essentially a Normal type move, the Blitzle was merely affect by the strength difference between the two of them. There was no clear indication that a lot of damage was done, but damage was done nonetheless. "Stripes, try a Crunch again." I wasn't concerned with Stripes missing agains, as the first move was cut short on purpose. What we were actually doing was adapting to the Blitzle's movements so that we would be able to land hits easier in the future. The main way this was achieved was by watching the Blitzle's hooves and legs.

This time, the order to dodge was given again, but this time, no attack was given in return. Again Stripes missed, but already we were starting to see a pattern.

With the next set of Crunches, Heji managed to really weaken the Blitzle, causing a great deal of bleeding. The moves Nitrous Charge, was rendered useless, as well as a great deal of its motion being inhibited.

"Not feeling so cocky now, are you? Looks like all that blood is ruining your perfect coat, heheh..." Stripes called out, taunting the injured Zebra. He responded quite hastily, essentially going a bit into a rage, but, due to the nature of his... conditioning, it was restrained enough that he didn't fly off the handle without listening to his trainer's commands.

"Stripes let's see if you can finish him off with Assurance." The order came and was executed flawlessly. With very little ability to dodge, the only thing that could be done was try and attack during the contact phase. Since Stripes was in far healtheir a condition there was no question that he would be the one to make it out of the encounter still conscious.

"Blitzle is unable to battle, Stripes is declared the winner!" The floor judge announced upon the assessment that the Blitzle was unconscious and that there was no risk of death at this point. He would likely have scars from the encounter, unless I was allowed to simply treat him on the spot, but as was quite the common occurrence, after their Pokémon went down, the trainer returned them to their Poké Ball, to have them treated at the Pokémon Center later.

"I suppose it's not that much of a surprise but, my final Pokémon is a Blitzle as well. I'm still going to do my best, so don't count me out just yet!" Rolan said, sending out his Blitzle.

"I'm ready and on a roll, but the lack of real digging is starting to get to me, I'm getting antsy here!" Stripes said, and it was understandable. After all, he was first and foremost a sand crocodile. In a way, it was brilliant, since it would be a sort of counter to people always coming in with ground types to counteract the Electricity. They would be able to resist it, but not really damage them too heavily. Having an Emolga which also added a Flying aspect to combat the ground made it even more brilliant.

The next battle proceded much as the previous one did, though Stripes wasn't without damage, due to my 'choosing' to continue using the same strategy essentially, as it as just another Blitzle. After the battle, I healed Stripes, though I explained to him that he wouldn't be participating in the next battle. He reluctantly agreed, and so Tensa took his place for the time being.

"I just received a message that Elesa is on her way. Would you like to participate in another battle, or do you wish to wait since it won't be too long?" The floor judge queried.

"I think we're good for now. We can wait. In the meantime, I can get myself acquainted with the Blitzle that we just defeated. Provided that this Rolan takes them out for us to do so in the meantime while we wait." I said, pointing to the boy's belt.

He looked at me with a sense of curiosity. It was a rather unusual request, seeing as how most trainers apparently just won their battles and moved on. I also shook his hand as a sign of sportsmanship.

"I don't see why not, but of course, they're still injured so there's that." He let his Pokémon out of their Poké Balls. They had managed to get a slight rest inside their Poké Balls, but still showed the evidence of being in battle, with slight blemishes.

"Hm, hey there Blitzle... Well, the first one anyway. So, is there any particular reason why you figured that you would be able to overcome a Krokorok, when even a Zebstrika has trouble with a Sandile sometimes?" I found it odd that he would seem so confident, but that was part of the reason why I let Stripes showcase his strength in the first place. By the same token though, I had to prevent Stripes from getting overconfident as well.

"Hmph. I feel like I'm close to evolving anyway, and how was I supposed to know how strong he was? I think he just got lucky is all." The Blitzle let out a sort of snort and stamped his hooves. Clearly, he wasn't a fan of losing, and was used to defeating a lot of Trainers. From what I could tell of the scan, it seemed that he wasn't too far off in level from Stripes.

Blitzle and Sandile evolved at around the same time in general. Unfortunately, there was no way to know exactly what 'level' they evolved at due to it not being documented just yet.

For Stripes though, the Pokédex recorded his evolution around 'level' twenty-nine. The Blitzle was currently registering as a twenty-four. The only way to establish a comparison would be to scan Elesa's Zebstrika.

"Well, I have no idea. This Pokédex of mine is actually quite special. It's a prototype, given to a small group of about six thousand people, two of which are my current, shall we call them, rivals? It has a few rather advanced features compared to most Pokédexes." I found it slightly odd how Rolan didn't make a big deal over the fact that I was seemingly conversing with his Blitzle. From this I was led to conclude that Elesa herself also at least on a basic level, had some form of conversation with it.

Our conversations continued, with me eventually revealing to the zebra that I was a visitor that was looking to assess the local Pokémon, Gym Leaders, and Trainers. Despite the obvious personality clash, we still seemed to at least be able to hold a conversation after he realized that I was able to understand him more than most that entered the Gym, and even his trainer, if you could call him that. From what I could tell, he only begrudgingly listened to Rolan's orders, but he was mainly trained by someone else.

About five minutes later, Elesa showed up in a manner that one might expect from a celebrity Gym Leader. The lights dimmed and she came around from the back. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point in the future if the entire gym was converted to a full area stage instead of a roller coaster.

"Well, I hope you're ready to be dazzled. But of course I am terribly sorry for keeping you waiting. Let's have a good battle, alright?" Elesa said with a bit of a flirtatious wink, but I figured there was no way that she could be honestly flirting with me.

"We've been waiting for a completely different reason. There's a surprise in store for you, that I think that you'll really enjoy," I said with a chuckle. One of the first things I would do would be to scan her Zebstrika when it came to the battle. There was also the issue of dealing with her Emolga, because Stripes would be at a clear disadvantage, he needed to be exposed to that, so that he would be able to learn from it.

"Is that so? Well I believe my beloved Pokémon will be the ones to make your head spin! Everyone. Are you ready to be delighted?!" Elesa spun around in circles, and I'm sure that if it had been a cartoon or something similar she would have had sparkles coming off of her with a somewhat blinding background.

"The battle between Gym Leader Elesa, and Trainer Kynexn is about to begin!" The floor judge announced, and with a bit of background music, which was a first for me, the call to begin was given.

Elesa sent out an Emolga as should be expected, since I had already essentially made a 'profile' for her. As Cilan would say, her Zebstrika was likely 'her vintage'. Like fine wine, her Zebstrika was the strongest showcase in her arsenal.

"Stripes, you're up for a short bit again. I don't think any of the previous trainers used this Pokémon on you before. Although it is a partial Electric-type, it also has Flying-type moves in its arsenal. Which, I don't know, guess we'll have to found out, won't we? Alright Stripes, go ahead and start with an Epsilon two." Immediately, to those observing me, the change in my strategy was apparent.

"Alright Emolga, use Aerial Ace!" Elesa ordered, and almost immediately it was clear that this Emolga was going to be fast. I was very interested in how Stripes was going to react.

Stripes did his best to follow the Emolga with his eyes, but was clearly having a bit of difficulty. It would be something that we'd be working on with Sally, seeing as how she was also being trained to fly incredibly fast, as well as being trained to be able to carry me. Quickly the Emolga took to the air, and began flying all around him. When the fit finally connected, Stripes brushed it off rather simply.

"Is that what you call an attack? I barely felt that!" It seemed as if he was slightly bluffing, since what I read from the Pokédex's health sensor was that if he didn't doge hits like that, he would probably actually go down in about four hits. However, part of the dodging process involved first figuring out their attack patterns. How fast he caught on would determine how many more hits he had to take. Either way, I'm fairly certain that if he'd still been a Sandile this Emolga would have done a lot more damage with that Aerial Ace.

"Keep it up with the Epsilon two." I said, giving yet another 'order'. This time he watched the Emolga more carefully, waiting for an attack.

"Another Aerial Ace! Then use Quick Attack!" Elesa called out, with a flourish of her arms. The order was quickly carried out, with it taking off again, and rushing towards Stripes.

This time around Stripes slightly dodged, but did take another bit of damage. Of course since the damage was already so miniscule in the first place, this one truly was one that barely affect him despite the type disadvantage.

"Hm, I see, this is becoming quite predictable..." Stripes commented. I found it odd how the Emolga didn't speak much though. Perhaps the next one would speak more.

"Quickly Stripes, shift to Delta two, combined with Epsilon two." I said. From my observation, Stripes had already analysed the attack pattern and would be able to effectively dodge, unless Elesa specifically order something different. Even then, he would be able to take that into account, as well as the fact that I would be acting as a second pair of eyes like I normally did.

When the Quick Attack came, Stripes graciously dodged it, in a manner that I'd imagine if we were in a Pokémon Contest, would have caused her to lose more than a few points. Now that Stripes had fully analyzed the attack pattern for certain, it seemed to be smooth sailing from that point on.

As a bit of a surprise, but not the big surprise, Stripes began to chip away at the Emolga's health as he dodged, by channeling his Dark-type Energy into his claws, and striking after the other's attack missed.

Eventually after a long series of exchanges lead to the eventual downfall of the Emolga, with Stripes taking a moderate amount of damage. It didn't much matter though, because Heji was going to finish off the battle.

"Alright Stripes, that's enough for now. It's time for the big surprise that I've been saving up until now." I didn't return him to his Poké Ball, but told him to join the stands or somewhere similar, such as the area where Elesa entered, or the roller coaster cart. The next thing I did was take out Heji's Luxury Ball.

"Everyone... I'd like you to meet... Heji the Luxray." With a brilliant display of golden and white sparkles, as well as jolts of electricity, Heji emerged from his Luxury Ball. I never removed the Ball Capsule from his ball, and so all the effects left over from our delvings into Pokémon Contests came into play here.

"Oh... my.. goodness... what a magnificently brilliant entrance! Bravo, Bravo! But we still have a match to finish! Emolga, you're on stage!" Elesa was definitely starstruck, or the electrical equivalent thereof, but she recovered quickly, at least on the outside. I could tell from her initial reaction, as well as that spark of joy in her eyes that she was absolutely not expect a Luxray to appear in her Gym.

"I want to see your Zebstrika, and in addition to that, for research purpose as well, I need to see it. So, we're going to have to be quick about this. Quick as lightning." Heji's strength was going to be showcased as well as his speed. I was slightly impressed to see a decent amount of speed from the little squirrel, but no 'mon that I'd encountered yet could match Heji, or Striker.

"Very well, then let's start things off with a Quick Attack!" Elesa announced, and the Emolga took charge. However, it's no surprise that Heji easily avoided the attack.

"Why don't you show them your Iron Tail?" I said with a grin, and Heji seemed to feel the excitement coming from me. There was a reason for my overconfidence and in this case it was justified. I did however, look forward to facing Elesa's real team with Heji and the others sometime.

Heji gladly obliged, waiting for the right opportunity to strike, before he poised his tail, it glowed a silvery sheen, and also literally taking on a metallic appearance, then he whipped it lightning fast speed at the Emolga.

The result was near instantaneous; the Emolga slammed into the wall with such force, that it managed to crack the wall itself. Of course, this was a Gym, so obviously the idea of the arena taking damage was very common.

Elesa was speechless for a whole minute. She did recover, with a bit of flair that definitely showed that she had spent a lot of time in the spotlight. "A properly dramatic victory requires a dash of danger and a pinch of peril."

"Well, we'll see, but I doubt either of us is going to have a dramatic victory. I believe it is time for your Zebstrika to make its debut." I was definitely awaiting scanning the Zebstrika, for the purpose of figuring out a good estimate for the evolution from Blitzle.

"You're certainly right about that... here comes my last Pokémon, Zebstrika!" Elesa tossed her Poké Ball into the air and her Zebstrika appeared. At that point, I took out my Pokedex and scanned the Zebstrika,. it's estimated combat level was reading at somewhere around twenty-seven. Compared to the Blitzle from earlier, at twenty-four, its internal feelings of being close to evolution, seemed to be proven true.

Taking the average of the two yielded twenty-five and a half, but of course, half levels aren't really a thing, so I just figure I can round up to twenty-six. At the very least, it's level twenty-six or level twenty-seven.

"Quite interesting. Let's finish this off, shall we? There is something I'm curious about, perhaps your Pokémon still has the opportunity to dazzle me." I highly doubted it, considering that Heji was both fast, and strong.

"Well then, we'll just have to lead off with something special. Zebstrika, Flame Charge!" Elesa ordered. What happened next surprised me, for a number of reasons.

The zebra began stomping its hooves over and over again, before a very quick and fast spark appeared, with an incredible blaze of fire surrounding it. Its speed increased, but it didn't seem like it was much to be worried about.

With a quick zip, that was pretty much a miniature explosion, the zebra was left momentarily confused, as its present target was no longer in front of it.

"Zebstrika, behind you!" Elesa quickly called out. I had no problem with this either, as I too often acted as a second pair of eyes for my Pokémon during battle, so I was quite familiar with the idea.

The zebra turned around, and attempted another charge, but again, Heji dodged, and nothing connected.

"That is... an interesting thing. Heji, I think you know exactly what I'm thinking... Let's show them," with a bit of a dramatic pause, I promptly thought of how best to phrase it, "let's show them a Nitro Charge!"

In a manner similar to the Zebstrika, Heji gathered electricity. Unlike the Zebstrika however, Heji took it one step further, and put way more Electricity into it. It wasn't really my favorite move, considering that the recoil was enough to even hurt Heji, but at the same time, he was strong enough that it wouldn't cause a major loss in his health, compared to what the Zebra would take.

Heji slammed into the Zebstrika repeatedly, and without much fanfare after that, the Zebstrika promptly collapsed. Heji didn't come out of it unscathed either, but the Zebstrika's hair was definitely singed in all over, as was his own.

"Zebstrika is no longer able to battle! Victory goes to the Challenger Kynexn, Elesa is defeated!" The floor judge announced. The crowd that was previously stunned into silence, now went into a huge roar of applause and cheers.

"That... was... amazing..." Elesa said, almost at a loss for words.

* Note: At the time this was written the Kalos region didn't exist. Just like Cheren's home region of the Pokémon equivalent of China.


	6. Chapter 6: Differing Views

"You helped confirm my hypothesis about the slightly subtleties of Electricity that twist and turn in all sorts of directions. Perhaps we can have a chat later, if you're interested and have the time. I'll send contact detail to your agent and such. Also, I have the feeling that you want to meet Heji, so we can also do that too. I'm headed to Driftveil next." I said, in an attempt to break her out of her 'trance'.

It seemed to work as seemingly she went back into Leader Mode. "Ah, yes, um... well, before you go, I need to give you this badge, the Bolt Badge." She was less official, not that I minded. I also figured that it was probably for the better. I could only imagine the reactions from fanboys and girls, if Elesa did decide to forgo things just for that. But that was a big if.

She handed me the badge, and I graciously accepted it, readying my Badge Case, immediately after she mentioned it. With that out of the way, I gave her a bow and said, "I also would like to meet your Pokémon personally too, as well. I'm sure that Heji has plenty to talk about with them as well. Anyway, thank you for the Gym Battle, I'm going to be heading out now."

Elesa had a sudden realization, apparently still not fully recovered yet. "Hold on, actually... I don't think you can get to Driftveil yet. There has been a lot of traffic recently, and the bridge has been up quite often. Meet me on Route 5, and I'll see what I can do about it. Plus you won't have to pay the toll either."

I found it a bit odd. I mean sure, she was a celebrity but... that had no real authoritative power. The only thing I could think of would be her Clay as a Gym Leader, and the two of them together having Gym Leader Authority over the bridge, considering that it is associated with both of their cities.

"Ah, sure. Thanks. Guess that'd also give us an opportunity to meet without needing to go through the whole agent thing I suppose. But won't that mess with your schedule?" The toll was really no big deal, but I accepted the gesture nonetheless, being polite. In addition, it also gave me the opportunity to test out the fruits of Sally's training in terms of being able to carry passengers.

"Reschedulings happen all the time! Besides... sometimes it's fun to mess with my agent. Nothing too severe, but everything being so routine and precise... it's kinda boring. Anyway, see you there." She said, with a bit of a grin.

This likely explained why a lot of the Gym Leaders were barely in their Gyms. It seems as if the League was much more lax with rules and regulations here. If there was to be a region in which I ever became a Gym Leader, this would definitely be it, considering that I'd be free to move around more. Having the ability to schedule it on my own time would be better than being nearly locked down to the Gym nearly all the time. At the same time, it also made me wonder how much the Gym Leaders were paid compared to the other Leagues too.

"Yeah, see you there." I said, and with that, I headed out of the Gym, and we made our way to the Route 5. This time, both Heji, and Stripes were out, along with Sally. It was a precaution... This time I planned on scouting out the next city before going, seeing if there was a Team Plasma presence.

On our way to the gate, we were stopped by Bianca.

"Yoo hoo, Kyn!" Bianca shouted out, to try and catch my attention.

"I just checked out the Musical theatre and it is SOOOO cool! Won't you check it out with me? Since you're still here, come on!"

She seemed really excited about me seeing this musical, and I didn't want to really disappoint her. At the same time I felt like it would be interesting to learn more about this sort of thing. I was the tourist here after all, and she was the native.

"Well, not exactly, but if they're anything like Pokémon contests, they should be really fun and interesting to watch."

"A. Mazing. Isn't it?" Bianca spun around in place, accentuating the fact that she was taking in the sights.

Soon, an older looking gentleman approached us, but he didn't appear to be a trainer, nor did it seem like that sort of thing was allowed in here.

"Hello, you two! How do you do? I'm the owner of this theatre. Pleasure to meet you!" I let out a small internal sigh. Another one of those people that always is 'pleased' to meet someone. I nodded politely and bowed my head at the same time, but didn't say a word.

He then looked us over from a few angles before shouting quite excitedly, "Ooh! I must say that you two seem like phenomenal trainers." This made me chuckle, I was reminded of the Day Car man, in the sense of people apparently being able to judge the potential of someone by looks. Again, if I were younger, it probably would have been well received.

"What do we do here? We use Props to make your Pokemon fashionable and glamourous! Do you want to join and play Dress Up? To get you started, here's a Prop Case!" This time I was so close to laugher, I was sure that it showed in my voice. Did I seriously just get invited to play "Dress Up", in a serious sense? Maybe if it'd been ten years ago, but not now. Regardless I took the prop case as was offered.

"It could be interesting... but I think I'm going to be doing something a bit different. Let's see what you've got, Bianca!" I said, trying to fix the potential laugher in my voice by treating it as if I was challenging Bianca to a Pokémon battle.

"Well first off, you need to select a Pokémon!" He said, and of course the one I chose was Stripes. First to see his reaction, and secondly, because I did have something in mind for him that I knew that would be something that caught the attention of people.

I didn't think I'd actually be using the Prop Case that was provided for me, since I had the feeling that their initial selection would be limited. It was free though, so I had an idea that would be simple, yet charming. "Stripes, I believe this would be a good opportunity for you, but, I'm not going to force it on you of course. As well as the fact that I don't think it's something I want to do right now. Perhaps after Clay's Gym or something, maybe. Just like, remind me or something."

Bianca, however took a great deal of time to dress up her Pokémon. I definitely appreciated her enthusiasm, and seeing her smile about something, considering that in her eyes, and many others, she wasn't really a competent Trainer. In this regard, I believe her father was to blame, since from what I've seen in the time I knew her, her father had raised her to be walking stereotype.

I waited at theatre, and even watched her performance, and she seemed to actually have a pretty decent fashion sense, in the sense of dressing up her Pokémon and the rest of the segments. It made me think that perhaps, her strong point would be focusing on non combat aspects of Pokémon interaction, and on making each one's personality shine.

Contests didn't exist in this region apparently, so I was definitely going to give her a brochure for some of the places that did have them.

When she finally returned to us, she seemed to be quite conflicted. "Oh, I don't know what to do! Doing the musical stuff would be totally cool, but there's other stuff I wanna do. OK, that's it! I made up my mind! I'm going to see the sights in Nimbasa! See ya, Kyn!" I'd already sort of 'seen the sights', in terms of Nimbasa, but it make me think back to her father. She'd lived here all of her life, and yet, she never really got to see the sights? It lead me to believe that'd been lead a really sheltered life by her father.

When we exited the building, Bianca's father was there to greet us, or rather, Bianca.

"Daddy?! What are you doing here?"

"I've come to take you home of course! Your mother told me that you'd made it all the way out here. I think that's far enough, don't you?"

"No way! I'm going to keep traveling with Kyn and my Pokémon!"

What happened next blew me away. Bianca of course, backed up, but I didn't know why until her father came near her and... slapped her across the face, with enough force that it clearly left a mark, and resounded against the buildings.

"Absolutely not! Others do things their way, and we do things ours!"

"Is that so? Then, how about you do things your way, and I'll do things mine!"

"That was absolutely uncalled for!" I shouted out, but at the same time, I didn't really want to do anything. I noticed that despite everything, Bianca didn't seem phased by this slap, and I got the sickening feeling that this sort of thing had gone on for quite some time in her household. To see her standing up though, it made me feel proud of her, proud that she was breaking free of such a relationship with her father.

Another surprise awaited us, but at the same time, I should have expected her to be there. Elesa had apparently witnessed more than enough and decided to step in herself as well. "Sweetie, you keep going on your travels."

"Hey! Who do you think you are? This is a family matter! I've had enough meddling!"

"My name is Elesa. I'm this town's Gym Leader. I also happen to be a model."

"Yeah, big whoop, what's that got to do with anything?" He said, stamping on the ground in frustration, quite literally like a child.

"Perhaps if you listen, you'll learn. Bianca, dear, there are many types of people in this world. There are people whose way of thinking may be completely different than yours. Sometimes, this means you may get hurt."

He just couldn't keep his mouth quiet though, and just had to put his five Poké Dollars in. "Of course! That's exactly right! It's because I'm worried about that..."

It was at this point that I started wondering whether or not Elesa had a daughter of son of her own, and that she was speaking from experience. "But it's important to keep trying, to learn about the differences between yourself and others. To learn that being different is Okay. And you shouldn't worry. Trainers always have Pokémon at their side. Pokémon are wonderful. It's not only how cute they can be, but also how much you can depend on them..."

"People and Pokémon grow together. They share in moments of joy, sadness, anger. Triumph and defeat. All of these are vital experiences in growing up, and are no different than what you would experience with a Human friend." I finally added in. It was something that I hoped he'd be able to understand at least that.

"Please! I know there's gonna be painful stuff like you're worrying about! I know! Really, I get it! But, like, listen... There'll be tons of nice people, too. Know what else? Since I've been traveling with Pokémon, I've already gotten tougher, I can totally tell. So... please?"

"Hmm... I guess. If wanting to continue your journey is selfishness on your part, wanting to stop you is selfishness on mine. I'm surprised to find I'm the one being childish-at my age! You and this Gym Leader's comments helped me wake up. Bianca, I'm sure it's better that you take the path you want to take now. I hope that your journey will be fun. Bon voyage! Kynexn, please... Take care of my little girl, OK?"

"Papa, I'll come home after I find out what I really want to do!"

"She's so cool! Hah! I want to be a totally cool woman like Elesa! Mm. I wonder how I'll get there. Well, before that, I guess I need to discover what I really want to do! See you later, Kyn..." Bianca waved to me, seemingly a bit happier than before, and went on her way.

With a great deal of sighing, in relief, frustration, and anger, I waved Bianca off. It was time to head for Route 5, finally. I was also slightly happier after this, considering that not only stood up to her father, but also stood up for herself, and asserted her choice to become a Pokémon trainer.

After what happened with Bianca's father, I really wasn't in the mood for any bullshit getting in the way of our journey at this point. Chances are, we'd likely run into Team Plasma, and if that did happen... I was definitely going to take my frustration out on them. Even still, I would be forced to hold back slightly, since Cilan had been given time to meet up with me again, and he was continuing along with me, to continue observing the dynamic of my team and I.

Cilan was excited to see Heji, since he was not a native Pokémon to this region at all, but not nearly as excited as Elesa was, being the Electric-type fanattic that she was. Eventually I'd probably introduce him to even more of my Pokémon, but for the time being, Heji would likely be the only one I brought out from the group.

On our way to the next Gym, which according to the League Setup here, was Driftveil city, We encountered several interruptions.

"Kynexn! Hold on a second!" A voice cried out. I recognized it as that of Cheren. Seems that he'd recognized me from afar. After all, I did have a very specific set of clothes, as well as a very noticeable hairstyle, even with it never being the same twice in a row.

"Oi, Cheren, you don't have to wake the whole forest, you can just call me, which would be an even easier way to stop me! But I think I know what you're here for." With this statement in mind, I had pulled out my Badge Case, and had it ready for him. I also took the time to keep my badges extra shiny and polished. They were a sign of our accomplishments after all, and it just wouldn't do to have them be tarnished. Yes, technically they were just shiny pieces of metal, but that doesn't mean that keeping them in disrepair is something that I would accept.

"Looks like you've got a Bolt Badge now. I too have a Bolt Badge. Let's see how much I've improved!" I quickly accepted his challenge. All of my Pokémon that were native to this region were rotated semi-equally. The ones that were stronger tended to stay out of the rotation until the others were caught up.

"Well, who's going to go first? Obviously the one who goes first in generally at a disadvantage, like chess, as you'd imagine. Or perhaps would you like to flip for it?" I suggested it since after all, I figured it didn't matter what order we went in, considering that Cheren seemed to be the type to be able to still adapt to situations that would normally have most people at a disadvantage.

"Might as well flip. We're so close right now, I can feel it." Cheren said, with much more confidence. Technically he was right, so in this case, because it was time for the others in the rotation to be brought up to strength level, the only thing that would keep me ahead would be strategy.

"Looks it's tails, I go first." I said, after revealing the Pokétch flip to him.

"In that case, I'll start with Saigo." Kyn said, sending out his Pokë Ball. Of course he heard so he knew he was up.

"We both know you know that I have a Tranquil. We both have them. But I'm not going to do the expected and send out my Tranquil. Instead... I choose... Liepard." Cheren sent, before sending him out.

"Very well, Saigo, lead with Vine Whip." With Cheren, I had yet to use my second signature approach, but compared to the rest he'd battled, he would have likely recognised that there was no specific direction other than naming the move itself, as opposed to specific orders.

Cheren was actually starting to partially integrate this method of battling into his overall style as well, to the point that he might actually improve beyond the point that even Bianca wouldn't be able to defeat him. It definitely made me happy for him since it seemed that he was going to be able to follow his dreams.

Saigo slightly charged at the Liepard, but at the same time, began zigging and zagging in various directions.

Cheren gave no order to dodge, letting his Pokémon work naturally for the most part. Like me, he also chose to act as a second pair of eyes.

Liepard countered with a Pursuit, which did a decent amount of damage to Saigo, but Saigo managed to take down the Liepard with the second Vine Whip.

"I wasn't really expecting that. Anyway... I suppose it's time to send out my Tranquil now." Cheren said, after he held out his Poké Ball, and returned the fallen Liepard to his Poké Ball, and sending out his Tranquil.

"You think you can handle this, Saigo?" I asked, feeling as if he could definitely use a bit more Super-effectivity training. The experience gained from learning how to counteract a type disadvantage with not just strength alone, but strategy as well was a valuable experience that I put all of my Pokémon through.

"Perhaps, but even still, I know that it's not like you'll let me get fatally hurt." Saigo said, preparing himself for the next round.

"In that case, we'll work on your dodging, and move countering, which of course means that your weights are still going to be on." I said, pointing at his ankles, and tail, even though there were also weights on his arms, legs, wrists, and hands too.

"Let's go ahead then." Saigo said, getting into a battle stance to let everyone that he was ready.

"Your go, Cheren, heh. What do we have up our sleeves hm?"

"Battling you never fails to be interesting. I always learn, I always improve, win or lose." Cheren stated, adjusting his glasses. It was then that he ordered the first attack. "That being said... Tranquil use Air Cutter."

What happened next shocked both of us. Saigo attempted to dodge, and even counter, but it turns out that the way it approached him actually made it work. He was critically injured with the first hit, and I checked him over physically as well as with the Pokédex. "That's enough I think. That was highly unexpected. You, Cheren, Tranquil, remember this, this was a one shot victory. If you'd done that attack twice in a row... I'm sure Saigo would have died."

"I am indeed surprised, but as usual, your judgement is incredible. I'm sure that if Saigo hadn't been trained by you, that attack would have killed a Servine in a similar situation, which I would regret, but it would be the unfortune of how battles can be sometimes, and ignorant Trainers." Cheren stated rather solemnly.

"Well, now it's Pendragon's turn. Of course he's still weak to flying, but we'll be going all out." I said not returning Saigo to his Poké Ball, but sending Pendragon out.

"Pendragon, you're going to be going up against a Flying-type, so we have to make this count. It's highly likely that you'll meet the same fate as Saigo, please don't take this the wrong way." I said, though in a way, I knew that saying things like this would get Pendragon even more pumped for battle. "So if we're going to make this count, why don't you lead off with a Poison Tail?"

Pendragon let out a hmph, and rolled around into a more suitable battle position, before lightly bouncing in place to get himself prepared for attacking a Flying type.

The battle proceeded much like the others, with the except of the fact that Saigo did no damage to the Tranquil. In this case, Pendragon managed to land a very critically injuring poison tail, but he missed on his Bug Bite and I had to return him too, out of battle, to save him from being fatally injured. But the experience gained was highly valuable. Saigo also learned from it.

It didn't take long for Cheren's bird to go down after not only on top of being poisoned, was bitten twice, although non critically, by Lord James. With the first hit, the Tranquil flinched, allowing a second hit, which finished him off.

Lord James managed to take out his Pansage too, but he wasn't without damage, as he took two Seed Bomb attacks during the battle.

Eventually though, with Cheren's Pignite, Lord James's winning streak was finally brought to an end, being as how he'd taken a significant amount of damage, but not without dealing damage to the Pignite.

"Flare, you're up, let's finish this off. Hyper Fang." I ordered. Luckily for the both of us, his Hyper Fang was able to do a significant chunk of damage, and it took caused his Pignite to flinch as the Tranquil had.

A slight surprise greeted us in the form of the Pignite using a Citrus Berry that he no doubt got from Cheren, which made me grin.

Suffice it to say, Flare managed to win the battle after clinching a victory from enduring both a Flame Charge, and two rollouts, and landing one final Hyper Fang.

"You see, Flare, you're stronger than you thought. You thought that I didn't use you because you were weak? Are you still thinking that you are weak? Your Pokémon are strong too, Cheren, even if there was a great type advantage." I said, giving the tiny hog a congratulator patting and a hug.

Cheren let out a sigh, that I wasn't sure if it was contempt for himself, or something along the lines of slight relief that he was doing far better than he expected to do. "I can't believe it! But... you're still as strong as usual."

"Either I'm getting lazy with my training or you're improving exponentially, which would be excellent. You remind me of myself when I first started out. You're going to be a great Trainer." Of course, I knew that it was the latter, since I definitely wasn't holding back anything for Cheren, especially since I had to train them all in a cycle.

Cheren adjusted his glasses again, which was a habit I knew he did when he was analyzing things, or nervous. "I'm glad that you admire me enough to want to step over me... uh... you know what I mean."

Cheren smiled a bit, despite what he said. "It's a little frustrating that I can't beat you, but thank you Kynexn. I'm going to make you proud!"

Elesa, finally managed to meet up with us on route 5, and she came with a smile on her face, having seen our battle lightly. "Oh, you two are friends... That's nice how you're helping him get better by competing. OK, let's go."

"Oh! Why, if it isn't Elesa! Aren't festivals grand? Life should be enjoyed!" A strange, orange haired man greeted her.

Cheren turned to Elesa, through me, and asked quite simply, but very politely, "Who is this man?"

"This is Alder, the Unova region's Champion." She stated rather matter of factly.


	7. Chapter 6: The Quake Badge

"Champion?! Why would the Champion be goofing around in a place like this?" Cheren shouted, but I could hear in his voice that he was more surprised than anything, almost like he couldn't believe that this was the actual Champion of the entire region right here, in front of us.

"I heard that remark. You're quite a judgmental young person, are you not? My name is Alder. I'm the Unova Pokémon League's Champion. Pleased to make your acquaintance. For your information, I'm not goofing off. I'm on a voyage. I know every corner of Unova."

"Um, I'm Cheren, from Nuvema Town. My goal as a trainer is to become the Champion."

"Hm. Traveling with a goal in mind is a commendable thing. What about you, young man?" Alder said, referring to me.

"Me... well... my name is Kynexn. I'm from Oldale town in Hoenn and... I'm the former Champion of Sinnoh and Hoenn." I said, with a bit of nervousness. I was planning on saving this revelation for when Cheren was at the Pokémon League, but I never ever thought I'd just encounter a wandering Champion so early on, after only getting four badges.

"W-Wait, what? Kynexn you... were a Pokémon Champion?" Cheren looked between the two of us, incredulous, shocked and stunned.

"This is quite an interesting development... well in that case, I feel as if this will be more for Cheren than it will be for you. So, what do you plan to do after becoming the Champion then, young man?" Alder said, putting his hand on Cheren's shoulder.

"What else is there other than striving to be stronger? The strongest Trainer-that's the Champion."

"Hmm. Becoming stronger... Becoming stronger, you say... Is that alone enough of a goal? Hmmm. It's not that I'm trying to say your way of thinking is wrong... In my travels, I've helped many people learn to love Pokémon. I think that's important, too. If you play with those children, you might gain more of an understanding. Will you two have a Pokémon battle with those two? Hey you two. Come here for a moment." Alder beckoned the two kindergarteners over.

"...Understood. But, before that..." Cheren said, turning to me.

"I'm afraid I have to decline. I get the feeling that there's a more pressing matter at hand here, and although it'd be a good lesson for those two, I'm sure Cheren would be able to learn too. Besides, Cheren, you need practice coordinating two Pokémon at once, I don't. Please don't take that the wrong way of course. And Alder... I look forward to facing you at the Pokémon League. I think we should exchange stories sometime, of the things we've learned in our journeys. I suppose now that I've met someone like you, perhaps becoming a wandering Champion isn't non viable anymore. It's just that Hoenn and Sinnoh aren't like that. This place is fascinating for me. Anyway... I need to get going. I hope you two enjoy your battle!" I said, looking down at the two children, smiling.

"Fine, I can understand that. Now... Cheren, if there are people like you who pursue strength, there are also people who are happy just being with Pokémon. There are many different people and many different answers. When it comes to what a Champion should be, you and I may hold differing views, but so be it! Give it some thought."

"Let's roll. The Driftveil Drawbridge is just ahead."

"Hold on a sec, Elesa. There's... something I want to check first. What I'm saying is, don't call ahead to lower the drawbridge until I've checked something, if you will. There's this group going around the region, you might have heard of them. They're called Team Plasma, and they often hold rallies. They're a group that supposedly is campaigning for the liberation of Pokémon from Humans. I chased them around Nimbasa City, but before you call ahead, could you have Clay or someone scout out the area before you do? As a matter of fact, you probably know about this but, Luxray are able to see for kilometers with their special vision. If they're in Driftveil City, He'll be able to see them."

"You've really thought about this, haven't you? Very well, I'll see what I can do." Elesa said, before she got out her Xtransceiver.

"I'll be going on ahead. Come to the bridge when you're done please, so that I can let you know about my investigation as well." I said, before I began heading to the bridge. I let Heji out of his Poké Ball, as well as healed up the rest of the team.

When we got to the bridge Heji used his eyes to scout ahead, with special emphasis on the bridge considering that their only escape route would be over the bridge since that was one of their only escape routes, since at this point it was clearly established that they didn't have any major Flying-type Pokémon in their arsenal.

The search immediately returned results. Team Plasma was rounded up, and gathered in one specific place. If the bridge was cutting off their escape route, since they weren't tied up or anything, merely blocked.

"Sally, give Elesa this message, which should bring her over here." I said, as I wrote down that the drawbridge shouldn't be lowered, due to there being Team Plasma members on the other side.

After about two minutes, Elesa came over to me at the bridge, along with Sally. "I just got off the phone with Clay. Apparently they'd rounded up some of those Team Plasma people. You made a really good call. They'd likely have rushed the bridge the moment it was lowered. I'd go with you to meet him, but, I have a TV gig, so I've go. He may take some getting used to... Good luck!"

"Come on then, Sally, let's put that training to use. Take me across to the other side. Eventually we're going to get you able to carry us and well people heavier than me, across the entire region. Like migration, in a way. I won't have you doing like 14 hour flights unless it's an emergency. And even then, I'll use the healing liquid on you so that you will be instantly better." Kyn said, before he turned to Heji, who gave a nod, and then was returned back to his Luxury Ball, and for the first time in a long, long time, Tensa was back in his Premier Ball.

Sally nodded in approval, and began to fly, looping back around after she'd gained a bit of distance. I extended my arms, and she swooshed down and grabbed them and away we went! We travelled across the river, which was a good test for Sally, since it was quite a large river. A good entry level to sustained flight.

It took us about ten minutes total to cross the river, and when we got there, the Team Plasma grunts were still contained. We arrived at the side of the bridge, so it made sense that they were contained there.

"That was really great, Sally, I do hope you're proud of yourself. At this rate, you'll be able to fly across the continent without me in a few months, and with me in half a year." I complimented her greatly, since she really deserved it. The best part of it was that these skills also greatly contributed to what she would be able to do in battle too, and I had the feeling she'd evolve pretty soon.

When we went up to the grunts and Clay he immediately greeted us.

"So yer one of the Trainers Elesa was talkin' about, huh. I'm Clay. I'm the Gym Leader 'round these parts, just in case you need a memory refresher. I'm looking forward to our battle, after all." He said.

However, our meeting was interrupted slightly by Ghetsis, annoyingly.

"Clay. It's a pleasure to meet you. I am Ghetsis, of Team Plasma. I've come to pick up my associates who are in your care."

"I don't need no thanks, now. Yer buddies were tryin' to steal some folks' Pokémon."

"What's this? It seems as if there has been some misunderstanding. We only free Pokémon from wicked people."

"Well, that sounds real nice, if it's true. I may not talk purty, but at least I'm an honest man. You talk real nice, but what yer sayin' kinda sounds like lyin'. So tell me plain, what are ya tryin' to say?"

"Team Plasma also has an interest in Driftveil City. And we have many, many more members besides those who are here..."

"...Well, I can't tell if yer lyin' or not, but I reckon you've won this without a fight. Hrrmph. Fine. Take 'em and git!"

"A decision worthy of a businessman called the Miner King. Your grasp of the situation is outstanding. Well then, we will be taking our colleagues off your hands..."

"Ghetsis... Thank you very much..." One of the Sages, who I have never been introduced to, said.

"Don't worry, my fellow servant of the king... We are two of the Seven Sages, are we not? Well then, everyone, I expect that we will meet again somewhere." With that, Ghetsis and the rest of his 'associates' left.

"Well.. Think it's about time fer myself what it is about yer skills that makes a Gym Leader like Elesa take such a shine to ya. That was a really good call ya made, not having the bridge lowered. I get the feelin' that this bunch woulda found a way to escape in all the ruckus, and that woulda made me right annoyed with ya. I mean sure, in the end we wound up lettin' em go, but, that's neither here nor there. Let's celebrate it as a victory anyway with a Gym Battle." Clay actually managed to crack a smile, seeming as if that rock hard exterior managed to be slightly cracked by the circumstances. I didn't even want to imagine how annoyed I'd be if I was blamed for them escaping when they were supposed to be the ones containing them in the first place.

"It's alright, I guess. But I think you should wait for someone named Cheren, first. I want to explore your town a bit more. Now that Team Plasma has been dealt with, the drawbridge can be lowered, and he can come over. I essentially flew here, just because of that. He's even more anxious to battle you than I am, so I feel it'd be fairer if he went first." I explained. I already knew that Clay was a Ground-type Gym Leader, so chances were he had a Krokorok of his own. For this reason, I planned to have Stripes watch the battle.

"I suppose that makes sense. I guess he's yer friend so I picture he must be just as strong, if he defeated Elesa and is headed here. She mentioned him too, though not by name. Tell him I'll be down in the mine, then. Plenty of room there to have a good battle." Clay said, and with a slight adjustment of his hat, he headed into the Gym. Elesa was definitely right though, he did take some getting used to.

Eventually Cheren made his way to the Gym, and at this time Cilan also was with him. He was finding out firsthand just how hard it was to travel with me, but I did say he could come with me so occasionally I waited for him at varying intervals.

"Kynexn! I'm so glad that I get to watch your next Gym Battle! Just thinking about it on my way here got me so excited. The dynamic between you and your Pokémon is amazing. I've never met a Pokémon Trainer like you before." Cilan said, but this time he didn't spin around in place, thankfully. It was kind of nice, in a way, almost as if he was part of a fan club, but at the same time, I was never really into that sort of thing. It took too much time dealing with, but when it was just one or two people it was manageable.

"So, where's Clay? Have you gotten your Gym Badge yet?" Cheren asked. I shook my head in the negative and began to explain things, after I acknowledged Cilan.

"Well, that's because I don't really consider myself a Pokémon Trainer. I'm more of a Pokémon coach, and a human Coach in some respects. As for where Clay is, Cheren, he's in the bottom of the Gym, in the mine. I would watch your battle, but I'm going to explore the city, try out some of its food and whatnot, y'know, the works. I'm also not going to wish you luck, nor will I ever. You, you do things with skill and experience." In a way, wishing someone good luck, although filled with good intentions, also takes away from the concept of skill in terms of things like battling. I knew Cheren wasn't the type of person who would like to have been seen as getting a lucky win, which is why even though I didn't say it, the wish of good intent was there more so than could ever been seen with words.

"Well, actually, I want to do just that, I want to have a flawless victory! So I plan on getting stronger. I'll definitely be back after that though." Cheren said, before he waved goodbye, and headed off into the city.

"Well, Cilan, I think I'm going to shift plans a bit. Seems as if I will be battling Clay first after all. But that means that I'll likely cut back on some things. I'm really kind of annoyed at what this Ghetsis guy said. He made it seem like Team Plasma is already all over the region... which means that if that's true, then wherever they are... I have to stop them."

Cilan remained silent, but he had a look that was a mix of concern, as well as inspired. He'd since we last met up learned more about Team Plasma, and how some of the members seemingly 'liberated' Trainers from their Pokémon by force.

With a new vigor, I headed into Clay's Gym, but before that, I let Heji, Tensa, and Stripes out of their Poké Balls. Now that we were all focused on the Gym I could really start to see the more intricate details. The path leading up to the gym was completely paved with all sorts of fantastically colored stones. Limestone; black, white, grey, blue, pink, red, green. Sandstone; pink, green. Shale; blue, pink, brown, red, black. Quartz; rose, amethyst, smoky, milky, citrine, clear. All of these were neatly displayed under thick glass, showcasing the wealth of the town itself, and their dedication to Clay. He of course, also did a lot of it on his own as well.

The Gym itself was just as grand as the path leading up to it was leading to believe, with designs showcasing everything from polished bronze, polished brass, polished copper, and if my eyes weren't deceiving me, the brightest blue opals lined select areas, nine in total we could see. There was also, the possibility that they were the even rarer blue ruby, which would further display the wealth of town, proudly, daring anyone to try and take them, because they weren't even guarded, that I could see.

Perhaps there were hidden traps but that was neither here nor there. Thinking more on that though, the brass lining that was on all of the Gym Badges might have come from this particular town and shipped to the manufacturing area. The only region that had badges that were as elegant as these were Sinnoh, and I could imagine that the steel lining came from the same sort of miner, Roark, who was also a Gym Leader.

We descended down into the mineshaft without much fuss, idling making conversation amongst ourselves rather casually. Since Saigo was a Grass-type, it was clear that he would have a major advantage of them, as well as Tensa, so it was clearly outlined. Stripes and Heji would spectate, unless of course Stripes REALLY wanted to compete. Nothing stopped us from rechallenging Clay after already getting the badge.

When we finally reached the bottom, I saw Clay in the distance in the back of the mineshaft. It was quite interesting seeing the mineshaft. I never really went into any mines in my native region of Hoenn, so I didn't ever go down and explore, so when it came to things like this, I was definitely transformed into a youthful version of myself, but with the ability to understand even more than I would have been able far more than I would have been able to AS a child.

The walls were almost perfectly smooth, which even basic understanding of mining would tell you that they'd spent extra effort on making it more presentable, since it did lead to the Gym. Even still, it was a good approximation of what a standard mineshaft was like. Finally, we made arrived at the bottom which lead into the mine turned Gym arena.

Clay was in the very back, and I called out to him. "Hey, Clay! There's been a slight change of plans." I approached him closer so that I wouldn't have to yell, and his response was indeed more than a little odd in terms of how he replied.

"He ain't gettin' cold feet is he? I ain't gonna go easy on you, ya know." Clay said, but he didn't have that rare smile that I saw, with his face scrunched up into an intense expression, that showed he was about to get serious!

"Uh, no, he said he wants to have a flawless victory. So, I hope you don't mind but, I'm going to have to cut our battle short, and I'm afraid it's going to be a bit anticlimactic." I immediately replied to him with almost brutal honesty. There was of course, the potential promise of a proper battle at some point later.

"Huh, that sounds pretty cocky of ya wouldn't ya say? I built myself up from a humble start, and ya think you can just say something like that to me? I'll show you it's not so easy to rise to the top!" Clay said, preparing to send out his first Pokémon.

Saigo was sent out first, then Clay sent out his first, which of course, I recognized as a Krokorok. "There's something I've been curious about... Clay. It's been... slightly bothering me ever since I got my first badge. Was that Pokémon given to you by the Pokémon League?" I can imagine that it seemed like a very strange question to him, which was probably why he reacted the way he did.

"What kinda nonsense talk is that? Of course not! These are all mine! We worked hard together to get where we are, just like with this town! Ain't no way I'd accept some shortcut like that! Now enough talk, let's git this show on the road!" Clay said, before he straightened out his hat, and picked up his pickaxe.

"Very well! The battle between Gym Leader Clay and Challenger Kynexn is about to begin! The Challenger is allowed to use up to six Pokémon with substitutions at any time. The Gym Leader is allowed to substitute Pokémon once, and will be restricted to three Pokémon." The floor judge announced, who also interestingly also happened to be a miner at the same time. It was also a good show of Clay's character since the mine floor judge was also employed by Clay as well, and was still able to be impartial.

"Alright, we're going to be doing this in the old way, Saigo, start off with Leaf Blade." I wasn't beating around the bush, starting out with the most powerful attack Saigo had in his arsenal, though soon he would be able to do Tensa's pride and joy, Leaf Storm, from what I was told.

"Dodge with Dig!" Clay ordered almost immediately, seemingly using quite the classic strategy. Of course, the move Dig always had one key disadvantage of using Dig, and that was in general, that the one using the move, could no longer see the opponent. In a way it was mutual blindness... except for one key difference.

Saigo and I, however, had accounted for this, and found a way to compensate. It should be no surprise that our own Krokorok was more than willing to help with this particular thing. It served a dual purpose. Saigo would be able to counter that move, and many like it, and subsequently, allowing Stripes to learn how to better find his target while underground, and account for an opponent utilizing a form of the techniques that they'd be developing together.

To this end, Saigo closed his eyes, and stuck his vines into the hard ground, which was another testament to his strength. Using his entire body, in addition to his vines, he was able to feel where Clay's Krokorok was approaching, and move into a different area of the battlefield after detecting him approaching close. Without much fanfare, besides a practical explosion of rock where it emerged, the Krokorok appeared on the battlefield again.

"Tarnation! Use Dig again, Krokorok!" Clay said, with an emotion that I couldn't be sure was anger, or if it was him being impressed.

Saigo repeated the process yet again, except this time, he had another plan in mind. When the Krokorok emerged for the second time, he didn't dodge as much, and greeted the returning Krokodile with a double Leaf Blade directly to the knees, then to the stomach.

The Krokorok recoiled in severe pain, but stood its ground. Though the impact had really stayed with him. It wasn't immediately noticeable but that was what made it so effective.

"Fine then! Use Torment!" Clay ordered. The frustration in his voice was rising quite significantly, at his Pokémon being apparently made a fool of.

The once silent Krokorok, now spoke directly to Saigo. When he spoke... a very, very, dark energy pulsated from him. I doubted Clay could detect this, but there was various reasons that I could. "You're... not... going... to... do... that... again..." It was quite overwhelming. Saigo tried to use the move again but it was if Hell itself were preventing him from calling the Grass-type energy from flowing into his tail.

"Dammit... I really can't use that move right now... oh well, it's not like it's the only move I have that's super effective against you." Saigo said, before he shifted tactics again.

"Well, if that's the case Clay, then we'll just have to be more direct, won't we? Saigo, I think it's time for some rapidfire Vine Whipping." I said, before I folded my arms together.

Saigo rushed over to the Krokorok now, and we weren't going to give Clay that chance to take advantage of a dodge again, since the next thing Saigo did was lash out at the Krokorok's claws, elbows, wrists, and shoulders.

At this point Clay took the time to utilize his substitution. "That's enough! Ain't no point in continuin' like this! Time for my second best!" With that said, Clay returned his Krokorok to his Poké Ball. He then sent out a Pokémon that I'd never seen before... and so I had to take out my Pokédex to identify

"Palpitoad. According to this, Clay, Palpitoad is Water and Ground, which means that Saigo should be even more effective a battler against it." I said, with a bit of concern, of course, if he WAS anything like me, he would have had many ways to counteract a great deal of the disadvantages of many of his Pokémon.

"Don't be judgin' a book by its cover now. I meant it when I said he's my second best." The annoyance in Clay's voice was gone, replaced with that of pride, being as how he did likely have a plan after all.

"I see... well then, I suppose that it's time to stop messing around. I need some time for something. Saigo... yes. Consider this a substitution." Saigo came back over to me, and almost immediately, I kneeled down and began the process of 'no longer messing around'. The true purpose of Saigo's accessories was about to be revealed.

I started at his tail, removing the bands that were there, then moved to his ankles, before removing the ones on his arms, and wrists. "Saigo has been wearing weights this entire time. His movement has been severely limited. Until now." With Saigo's weights removed, his speed was severely increased to the point that he was able to move in way that I couldn't even imagine, to the point that he was quickly headed to become the Grass-type equivalent of Heji which was currently Tensa.

"Since Saigo can only use a move once before the strange effects of that move take over, we have to finish this in one hit, if we can. Think you can do that, Saigo?" All I could do was offer words of encouragement. It might take more than one hit, but there was an increased chance due to taking away the Palpitoad's ability to dodge, as well as the fact that Saigo could now put even more force into his Leaf Blade than before, coupled with the double weakness to Grass-type energy.

"What happens happens, not let's git back to it!" Clay said, attempting to prepare for whatever happened to come next from us.

"Then it's time for the final Leaf Blade!" I pointed at the Palpitoad, without saying any more words, and waited for the results. There wasn't anything particularly spectacular about it at all. I honestly never expected that it really would be over in one hit. When Saigo's Leaf Blade connected the impact sent the Palpitoad flying against the wall, pass clay, leaving a literal imprint in the shape of the Pokémon that impacted it, almost cartoon-like, in a manner similar to you'd find in an anime.

"Fine! I'm gonna go all out! Givin' up's the easy way out! If I wanted, I could have given up any old time!" Clay held out his last Poké Ball, and pushed the button, which revealed to be yet ANOTHER Pokémon that I had no idea of. So I whipped out my Pokédex again.

It was then that Saigo drew all of our attention. Saigo had become deadly still, as if a statue, but after a few seconds, he began to glow. Then, his body began to grow. First his tail shifted, then his chest continued the growth, expanding forward, opposite of his tail. His leafy arms and or hands, depending on your perspective, either shrank, or since his body size increased, stayed the same, and migrated slightly behind his back. Compared to his body now, they were pretty much miniscule, and didn't really have much usage at all. Even without looking at the Pokédex entry, I could tell that this form was meant to capitalize on the usage of vines. Even in his previous form he rarely used what remained of his arms and hands anyway.

The yellow part of him had morphed along with the green leafy 'hood', and back covering. It was also now incorporated into his overall patterning, with an even more regal looking cloak covering his body, still similar with a V shape, that came down seven centimeters or so, into an fluer-de-lis, made of a darker green than his body had. The singular pointed ear shaped leaf pattern with a yellow interior, transformed into two formations that essentially made it look like he had two mammalian, pointed ears. Unlike the cloak/covering, the ear growths actually looked more attached than before.

The cloak did cover his entire body, and was scale-tight, but even beyond that, seemingly as if to hold it down to his body in a specific place, even though it was scale tight, a pair of miniature fleur-de-lis accentuated his already regal looking appearance. Finally, his main tail leaf disappeared, and was replaced by the leafy cloak, with a rather odd configuration, but keeping the same three leafed pattern of the previous evolution.

All of these details wouldn't become apparent until after he finished glowing, as the details were just a simple white shining figure until after the light faded.

"Congratulations Saigo... You evolved into your final form. Whatever it's called... we shall find out right now though." With that, I held out my Pokédex to reveal that the form was that of Serperior, which many had noted its regal appearance, and thus called it the Regal Grass snake Pokémon.

"It is going to take me a while to get used to this new form... but I knew this day would come... the day I would lose my hands and arms as usable body parts." Saigo said, slithering away towards Tensa, excusing himself from the current battle. He still had some form of arm and hands after all, but now his method of being dextrous was to use his vines, and his body to some extent.

"Now, let's get back to where we left off," I said, bringing the Pokédex up to scan the other unknown Pokémon in the room,, "well, that's quite fascinating... I've never seen this typing before. Ground/Steel, Fire would be strong against Steel but, Ground can counteract Fire. I can't... risk Saigo here, so I'm sure he'll understand. I can't afford to mess up with this. He is quite strong, but steel is what we make many swords out of. Steel is dangerous. Tensa... You're up." Saigo made the acknowledgement that he was being substituted.

"I don't think he's going to be all too pleased to have his number one Pokémon taken out so easily." Tensa said, moving from his position to where Saigo had just left. He went into his battle pose.

"You ready, Clay? I promise that I'll make it up to you eventually." He may have seen it as cockiness, but it really was an unfair advantage, with Tens having experienced eight whole Gyms prior, and competing in one of the Leagues.

"This is my last Pokémon, if you defeat my Pokémon here, I'll give ya yer badge." Clay said, but his tone was rather neutral.

"Right then, alright Tensa, let's finish with a Leaf Storm and Leaf Blade."

Clay immediately ordered a defensive move. "Use Rapid Spin to break through!" Of course, he had no way of knowing how strong Tensa was, but I do.

Tensa bent down, and shook his tail, and a literal storm of leaves were conjured from his tail, and began flowing around him, but not at the Excadrill. In a way, it was like Tensa had a shield of leaves that essentially impacted all around the Excadrill. When he connected with it, he clasped his Leaf Blades together, essentially stopping the rapid spin, which also had the effect of bombarding it with leaves that did multiple impacts worth of extreme damage.

With a second final Leaf Blade, Tensa knocked the Excadrill back again the wall, yet again causing a new dent/imprint in the wall, with the Excadrill slumping down in defeat, knocked out.

"Well Shucks! Fer such a young 'un, ya have an imposin' battle style. Here! Take this!" I was not surprised that Clay had already prepared the badge ahead of time.

"You definitely showed me why Elesa seems to have taken a shine to ya, but I just remembered there's somethin' I want. Wait in front of the cave at the end of Route 6, wouldja?"


	8. Chapter 7: Chargestone Cave

I saw no reason to object, so I answered him graciously, figuring that I would be exploring the town after this meeting happened. "Uh yeah. I'll not be waiting too long I take it, considering the fact that this seemed pretty urgent."

"Yeah, be there in a tick." Clay said, before he rushed out, taking the elevator ahead of him, of course. Of course I could have gone with him but this way I got a bit more of an opportunity to speak with my Pokémon by myself, at least, minus the referee who likely had experienced this sort of thing at least a few times in their life.

"Well Stripes, I do wonder if you're excited about Pokémon battles just yet. I also need to get an everstone accessory. Have you decided on what sort of one you want?" I had already conceptualized some things for him to wear, but he, of course the final decision would remain with him.

Stripes pondered for a moment before finally saying, "Not really, even though I have some experience with Humans, and what you told me, but I have no idea what sort of capabilities you have besides the clothing you wear."

"Oh, yeah, I suppose that I didn't exactly tell you much in that regard. But it was to explain certain things. I will be able to give more detail. It's a bit like your weights that I've been using to train you. I also have no idea what strength level your species evolves at either, so I'll have to keep track of that for future record. But I'm sure you remember what that evolution energy felt like. If you feel that sort of thing happening again, I'm sure you can, in a way similar to how you do various elemental moves, try to redirect that energy outside of you, until we get the Everstone."

"How do Everstones work, anyway? A rock that can stop a Pokémon from evolving? Seems a bit odd." Stripes asked.

"Well I'm glad you asked. It's quite fascinating, actually. We still don't know _exactly_ why, but, it seems as if there are certain properties about an Everstone that work in a manner similar to how an evolutionary stone works, though in the opposite way. A Fire-stone, filled with the energy required for a Flareon to evolve, and a Growlithe into an Arcanine, and many others. This also translates a bit to being able to create a conduit that can essentially accelerate you an entire strength level… but I'm sure you can imagine it comes with a bit of a price."

"I can imagine that a shortcut like that would also do something to our overall strength and potentially life span." Stripes replied. If there was one thing that I liked about all of my Pokémon, it was that at the very baseline, it seemed as if I attracted the more intelligent types. In actually, I actively seeked them out based on personality and how they handled our first meeting.

"I believe so. But, I don't really want to think about it, since I care about you all more than that. Anyway, as you said you don't know much about how human clothing besides what I'm wearing and whatnot. So let's start with some basic things. Usually things like bracelets come in matching sets." I took out the Xtransceiver and began to show various arm bracelets, leg bracelets and eventually started moving on to other similar accessories.

Eventually we settled on two options. The final choices were a (Poké Egypt)ian style neck corset, and matching arm bracers, one of which would contain an Everstone. After that decision was made we headed to the cave that was outside of the city.

Upon reaching the entrance to the cave… my body completely froze. I was only to ask one simple question, the question that showed my greatest fear.

"Is that a fucking spiderweb? A giant fucking spiderweb?!" I collapsed to my knees and held my arms to my sides.


	9. Chapter 7: Feels like Home

It just didn't make sense. Why is it that I just couldn't get over this? Every time…. No matter the size I always froze up. "Spiders… Giant Spiders..." Something about it I couldn't quite bring myself to think about anything else. Thought just kept rushing in my head about what sort of horrible things could potentially happen. Not to mention that if I got caught in a spiderweb that size so many things could happen… If the Spider Web was that size then I could only imagine what the size of the creature that made it was.

I was interrupted from my thoughts by the feeling of being embraced. Normally, my first reaction to that would be to immediately reposition myself so that whoever was behind me would be on the ground/floor in front of me, but I knew those arms. Those weren't the arms of a giant spider off to carry me off somewhere. Those were the arms of my mate, the Sceptile I loved dearly, and whose presence immediately brought me out of the reality that I was creating for myself.

"Kyn… we're all here… we're not gonna let anything happen to you. Remember… as you said, we can take out anything in that cave." Tensa's voice was reassuring, and it snapped me back into reality.

"You're right… but it still shouldn't have happened… but it was just so much of a shock. But that's over. Now we've got to wait for Clay. This is probably the problem that the city needed help with. Caves are often passages between towns. I wouldn't be surprised if the 'mon got fed up with it and decided to block the way." It was what I could surmise, as it seemed really logical.

Even with that in mind, I stillI took a sword out of its sheath and held it, ready for a battle. The rest of the wait, was rather uneventful however. Clay showed up, with no way of knowing what had happened to me.

"Thanks fer waitin'. Looks like th' nest of an Electric-type Pokémon called Galvantula. Don't know why there's a nest here, but if there are folks havin' problems, th' Gym Leader's th' one ta fix it. Krokorok! Take it out!" It seemed as if his Krokorok wasn't in Hibernation Mode, since he was able to hear the command, and thus able to easily comply with it.

His Krokorok charged forward, then stomped fiercely on the ground. The area around us shook, but the only thing that really showed any signs of anything being affected was the Galvantula nest. It seemed as if the cave was naturally sturdy on its own, and that Bulldoze was really a small variation of a less powerful Earthquake.

"Sure ya recognise that. This move does damage and lowers the Speed of any Pokémon it hits. Some Ground-type Pokémon move a little slower than ya'd like. If ya use Bulldoze right, ya can cover that weakness! I don't know how good you really are, but if ya think ya can go, go wherever, and if ya think ya can do somethin', keep doin' it. Do things how ya want! Decide yer own limits."

Upon entering Chargestone cave, Tensa starts acting odd, something that I took notice of. I immediately looked around and knew something was off. I looked up and there were no Pokémon in the cave. "I see…. So that's how it is. ...You really think you can hide from me?"

"...Interesting. Very few people are able to detect our movements. ...Come." Their words were swift and too the point, but I was not to be pushed around by them. I continued to have my sword drawn, and let myself for the time being, be lead by them.

"... My lord N, we brought the one you wanted." Those were their parting words before the quickly and hastily moved out of the area, which to the normal eye would make it appear as if they simply disappeared out of existence.

"Thats bullshit and you know it. I wasn't lead here. Well, except for by Clay. I needed to come through here anyway." I wasn't too pleased at them so casually dismissing me like that.

"...Hm.. Ah, yes. That was the Shadow Triad, just now. Ghetsis enlisted them in Team Plasma. Apparently, they were the ones who prepared the Galvantula nest at the cave entrance." N turned around and faced away from me. Of course, his literal fast talking ways caused him to speak before I could make my rebuttal. I was annoyed that it was them that placed the nest there.

"Chargestone Cave... I like this place."

"Heji likes it too." Heji seemed really energetic and happy, like when he was still a Shinx. Not that he wasn't happy normally, just that Shinx in general have a much more positive and playful personality overall.

"He must be an Electric-type too then." N surmised. I was about to confirm it but he interrupted me yet again.

"Now then... Formulas express electricity and its connection to Pokémon... If people did not exist this would be an ideal place. You have been chosen, you know. Does it surprise you I said that?"

"Not at all. You and I will do extraordinary things together N. Together we will change the world!" It was easy to tell him exactly what he wanted to hear. Of course, there was a tiny degree of sincerity in it, which allowed m to pull off the lie as convincing.

"I'm glad you understand. I told Ghetsis about you and your friends. After I did, he apparently used the Shadow Triad to find about you."

"I had a feeling that something like that was happening." I wondered just HOW much Ghetsis and the Shadow Triad had found out about me. I was not native to this region so they would not have any record of me outside of perhaps how many badges I'd won, and a few other things. If they dug deep enough, I suppose they would have found where I came from. I tended to not leave that much of a digital trail, really.

"Cheren is pursuing the ideal of strength. Poor Bianca has faced the sad truth that not everyone can become stronger."

"If Bianca wants to become stronger, I will make her stronger. I don't know what she wants." It was true… I didn't just 'train' Pokémon but I also did the same with people as well as their Pokémon and showing them how to better build off of each other.

"But you, you appear to not be swayed either way-more of a neutral presence. Which is apparently a good thing. Team Plasma will be waiting for you ahead. Ghetsis wants to see what kind of Pokémon Trainer you really are."

"Then I'll be happy to reveal why I am thrice the Champion." I bowed to N and he left. After he left, Heji and Tensa went back to normal. Heji really enjoyed this place. It was as if it was giving him an extra boost. I was going to look for the Team Plasma members he mentioned but before I could proceed, Bianca called out my name.

"Kynexn, did you know this? The floating stones move when you touch them? Isn't that right Professor?" She seemed like an excited child, discovering cake or ice cream for the first time.

I sighed. "Bianca, how in the hell would I know that? I just got here." Professor Juniper appeared shortly after Bianca did.

"Hi there! How are you, Kynexn?" As usual, she was nice and cheery and full of pep.

"I'm kind of in a hurry actually. Something important."

"Oh... I see... well. My father asked me to research Klink, which is a Pokémon that looks like a gear, because I'm researching the origins of Pokemon and the era they appeared."

"That's nice and all Professor, but I really do have to go." Without even allowing her the ability to respond, I headed out toward the confrontation that I knew was coming. This time however, I was prepared. As I walked, I closed my eyes, and felt the natural energy of the cave around me. Everything resonated. The rocks, the path ahead of me, and I was practically able to see with my eyes closed. The main difference was… that this time, having already expected the Shadow Triad, I knew what to look for, and I had in fact, found it. They made a very distinct impression on the overall energy of the cave, especially when they moved. "I honestly thought you left the cave, but clearly I was wrong.

"...Come." Again, they barely acknowledged my existence other than simply directing me from place to place.

"... There are stairs going down ahead. Team Plasma is waiting for you there." With that, the Trio of very few words, 'disappeared' again. We made our way across the bridge that was the only path that lead to stairs that we could see in the distance.

When we came to the first batch of grunts…. I decided that there was no time to mess around here with them. I needed to get right back to N… and Ghetsis might also be waiting in this cave as well. "Heji…" I paused. It wasn't something that I really felt bad about doing, but I was not going to kill them, after all. "Use Discharge."

Upon realization that I meant that Heji was supposed to be attacking them, they immediately rushed for their Poké Balls, but it did them no good. With the attack landed, they were severely damaged, considering that I hadn't told him to hold back. "I'm sure some of you have potentially valid reasons for wanting to join Team Plasma… but the simple truth of it is, you're all being used. If you can't see that, then you deserve what happened to you here. This Team is organized yet unorganized. Two of your members, kicked an innocent Munna, back in the Dream Yard, for the sheer sake of trying to get it to produce Dream Mist. If that's the type of people that you are, then you're no better than the type of Trainers you claim to want to 'liberate' Pokémon from. We're done here." There was no need to respond, the message was clear enough.

The process was repeated many times, until I finally reached N.

As if it didn't even matter, upon seeing me and knowing I was within earshot, N immediately began speaking. "Many different values mix together, and the world becomes gray... That is unforgivable! I will separate Pokémon and people, and black and white will be clearly distinct! Only then will Pokémon become perfect beings! Yes, that is my dream! That is the dream I must fulfill! Kynexn, do you have a dream of your own?"

"Yes." It was simple and straight to the point. He didn't need to now much more than that.

"You have a dream... That's wonderful. I'll learn just what kind of dream you have-in battle!" Of course it would be a battle. As much as he seemed to despise battling, he did sure seem to want to battle me a lot. But at the same time, he did mention that Ghetsis wanted to see what type of Trainer I was.

"Do you believe that Pokémon battles help us understand one another?"

"Yes, N. Good Trainers put their heart and soul into battling. Me and my friends are perfectly in sync! That is why we can never lose!" I said, upon which Heji spoke up, agreeing with me. Of courses, obviously I had the ability to lose, it was just really difficult, and would take quite a skilled trainer. But that was the one thing, that Bianca and Cheren would learn, that I learned long ago. There is always someone out there better than you. Which is why I never stop getting better.

"Right!" He said, and let out a triumphant roar.

N passionately declared, "I will show you that my love for my friends permeates every cell of my body. Behold!"

Heji, Tensa, Stripes, Sally, and Pendragon all worked together with me to defeat N's Pokémon together. Not all at once of course, it was still a Pokémon Battle.

"My friends getting hurt... That's what a Pokémon battle is."

"N, how do you think I feel? Remember what I told you?"

"Tsk! Why? Is it impossible for me to win while feeling bad about being a Trainer? As if I could pursue my ideals with something as meaningless as a battle! As if that could make me worthy to become friends with the legendary Pokémon!"

"N... It's that exactly quality that will ALLOW you to become friends with Zekrom, just as I will become friends with Reshiram."

Bianca's shout echoes inside the cave. "Kynexn!"

"Just a little further to Mistralton City!"

Professor Juniper trailed behind. "Bianca, you have good ears. I can't believe you heard Kynexn's voice from that far away."

Upon seeing that it wasn't just me, she almost, but not quite stared, looking at N.. "Kynexn, who is this Trainer?"

"He's not a Trainer. His name is N, and he's a friend of mine." I used the term loosely, but in a way, I could see that he and I had some similar degree of ideas when it came to how we viewed Pokémon. At the very least he was trying to do _something_ about the way people treated Pokémon, even if he was going about it the wrong way.

"How long have you known him?"

"Ever since we met in Accumula town." He'd captured my attention then with the outright blatant declaration that he could understand Pokémon. I'm quite sure that by now he understand that that is not exactly something that one should be blurting out randomly to people, even if it was true.

"What...? You've only known him for that long?"

"Yes..." Clearly Bianca wasn't using her head. If I'd known him any longer, the two of them, Cheren and her, would have known him too. I suppose it could have been understood that maybe he was an older friend from the previous regions that I'd been to, or from my home region of Hoenn, but it was quite the odd thing to be surprised about.

N sighed at the Professor, looking a bit disappointed. "Professor Juniper, what are you thinking? You appear to have no qualms about the relationship between Pokémon and people. You put Pokémon into categories using arbitrary rules and think you can understand them like that... The very idea of a Pokédex revolts me. What do you have to say for yourself?"

The usually chipper Juniper, did her best to maintain a happier but neutral voice. A very diplomatic approach. Considering that she had no idea what sort of things he would do to her, if he even planned on it. "Oh, my. Looks like you're not my biggest fan. Your opinion is understandable. It happens to be different from mine, which is equally understandable. How about if all people get to decide for themselves how to relate to Pokémon?"

"You're saying-" I quickly cut N off, like he had done to me, many times before.

"Hold it N! Allow me to take over from here." I then turned towards Professor Juniper.

"Professor Juniper. I can't just allow people to treat Pokémon however they want, if the Pokémon suffer. He refuses to live in a world like like." Without saying another word, N walked away in a huff. I could imagine that he was going to say the exact same words, and so in a way, he was surprised, but also conflicted that someone who he found so fascinating for many different reasons, and told him of a different perspective, had said it as well..

"Well, I didn't expect him to change his mind right away. But I hope he'll spend a little time trying to understand how others feel."

"Now, then... I think I'll go collect a little more data. For Pokémon and people to get along better, we need to take steps to learn more about them!" Juniper said and went back deeper into the cave.

"Umm, Kynexn! I'm gonna go with Professor Juniper now 'cause I'm her bodyguard!" Bianca then followed after Professor Juniper. If at the very least, the positive thing to come out of Bianca's journey was that even though she wasn't exactly as good as Cheren or I, she still found something worth doing. Perhaps she'd become the Professor's assistant at the very least. With that little conflict out of the way, we spent a bit more time, enjoying Chargestone Cave, without any spider interference. Then, with renewed vigor, we followed the light out of the cave, and headed to Mistralton.


	10. Chapter 8: The Jet Badge

Upon exiting the cave, we were greeted with a Pokémon Center! It seemed as if they knew right away that having a Pokémon Center just outside of the exit of the cave in which Trainers would have emerged, would be a great idea.

As we started to walk though, another encounter happened to us that led us quite in shock.

A bearded man who knew my name came up to me. He was accompanied by a rather... interestingly dressed woman."Oh! Hey! Kynexn, right? Let me see your Pokédex for a moment." I immediately froze, and began to interrogate him. Though something about him seemed familiar.

"What... why? And which one?"

"You have more than one? I want to see them all!" I supposed it wouldn't hurt. It's not like he could steal them and sell them anyway, and I'm not one for judging one by their cover, even Team Plasma grunts.

I showed him the various Pokédexes that I had collected over the years, and he was stunned!

"Amazing! Simply amazing, astounding! You've seen over 200 Pokémon!"

"Staggering! You've seen a Klink too!" It was right then and there that I knew who he was and why he seemed so familiar. Those excited mannerisms, the fascination with Klink...

"Ehr... Excuse me! I was so excited and I forgot my manners."

"My name is-" I interrupted him, because I now knew who he was.

"You're Professor Juniper's father, the other Professor Juniper." It was simple enough. He sounded like her more than slightly, not just in voice, but in mannerism, and appearance too.

"That's right! Cedric Juniper, pleased to finally meet you. My daughter has told me so much about you. In honor of our meeting I'll upgrade your Pokédex so you can transfer the data from the previous ones!"

The woman who was with him spoke up, finally. "Professor, who's that Trainer?"

Cedric let out a hearty chuckle and spoke with that same cheerful tone. "Oh! I forgot my introductions! Skyla, this is a friend of my daughter's. Kynexn is traveling around Unova, collecting badges and I'm sure many other amazing feats." So this was Skyla. The Gym Leader of the city. With all of the themes related to transportation and especially the airport, it was no surprise to say that this Gym would be of the Flying-type.

Skyla's eyes lit up upon realization that I was going to be a challenger. "Oh, I see! So that means you'll be challenging the Gym! Oh boy! I'm looking forward to it!"

"You won't be so happy once you're grounded by my Pokémon. But we'll certainly enjoy it!"

"That's right, Kynexn. You should challenge this Gym! If nothing else, this Gym is really out there! See you, Skyla. If something comes up again, I'll let you know!"

Skyla, let out a heavy sigh. "Professor, my plane is a cargo plane! It carries cargo, not people! And you're talking as if place like Kanto and Sinnoh are right around the corner!"

I didn't really give what he said much thought, but I'd still come across quite the few exotic people. After encountering N, I was ready for anything this region had to offer, at the very least. "Aww, Skyla. If you keep frowning, your face might freeze like that, and that'd be a shame. People and Pokémon, we all have to help each other out! See you later!"

Skyla, gave out a similar hearty chuckle. "Sheesh! It's hard to believe a happy-go-lucky guy like that could be a world-renowned Pokémon professor. Heads-up, Kynexn. As a Gym Leader, I'd be happy to have you challenge the Gym, but there's something I need to take care of first. Just now, as I was flying the cargo plane, I saw something on top of the Celestial Tower. I'm sure that it is a sick Pokémon! If it is, I can't just leave it there! I have to look into this right away. I'm leaving for Route 7's Celestial Tower. You can come along if you want." With that, she departed off to the tower that was clearly visible in the distance. It certainly would take a long time to climb that tower, but we'd climbed Mount Pyre, we'd climbed Mount Coronet, a little tower like that would be nothing, and would be easy.

But, again my thoughts drifted back to how Burgh ran away from his Gym again. Despite the annoyance of not having Gym Leaders practically glued to their Gym to be able to accept many challengers, I also found it slightly refreshing in the sense that if I were to become a Gym Leader, I'd be most at home with my travels here. Hell, even the Champion wandered around the region.

We wasted no time in following Skyla, since there was really no point in waiting, especially since I would have no idea what her schedule would be like, and if the rest of the region was anything to go by, an opportunity to immediately challenge a Gym Leader here was a rare occurrence and one that practically screamed to be utilized.

When we arrived at Route 7, and I was surprised to see such tall grass on a normal travelling route after such a long while, but we were used to tall grass due to having experienced it back in Hoenn, and in Sinnoh. The one main difference, that surprise us, was that there were raised platforms that went through and around the tall grass.

"Well now... that certain is one solution. I suppose that the grass tops out at a certain height so they don't need to worry about having to cut it, and these platforms allow people to go around... If they can balance. But we know that that's not an issue for us now, is it?" I said with a chuckle. Balance training was a very important aspect of my whole training regimen because it could be applied to many different aspects of battle.

Once we made our way through Route 7 via the elevated walkways, we could see what I could only assume was Celestial Tower in the distance. When we got into the tower, I was quite surprised by what I saw. Inside, there were hundreds of graves, and that was just on the first floor. But what was even more surprising was seeing Pokémon scattered near the graves, sitting on the graves, nuzzling humans nearby. It became apparent after a while of observation that these Pokémon were not corporeally present.

When we eventually made it to the top, Skyla was indeed waiting for us.

"Oh, you came. Thank you! I was right. What I saw was a hurt Pokémon. Don't worry, though! It's fine now! I gave it a Super Potion, then it felt better and flew away! Hee hee! Don't I have great eyesight? No matter how far away things are, a Pilot's eyes can see them! Oh, that's right! Since you've come this far, why don't you ring the bell? Celestial Tower's bell is for soothing the spirits of Pokémon. Also, the character of the person ringing the bell is reflected in its sound."

"Come on, don't be shy!"

I was highly doubtful, but a lot of the people here believed it, and clearly Skyla believed it, so I might as well indulge. A bell was just a bell after all. The only things that could change the sound were the size and shape of the bell, and the clapper. With a great deal of my strength, I pulled the rope, and released it, and the bell rang out. I'll have to admit it was quite soothing. A very angelic sound. But... then something else happened... A Zigzagoon appeared. But it wasn't just an Zigzagoon, and I knew that this Zigzagoon was spiritual in nature. Then the realisation sunk in that this was my Zigzagoon. The same Zigzagoon that I let down back in Hoenn. But why was he here...? Things only got worse, because then a Wurmple appeared, followed by a Taillow. For the second time today, I collapsed to the ground, except this time... it was not in fear. It was with grief. I couldn't stop myself from crying. The tears stung my eyes just as much as the reminder of my failure did. I hadn't seen these Pokémon in seven years, and I'd never forgotten them. They were always a reminder of why I had to get improve myself and get stronger, and help my team get stronger as well.

"What a pretty sound. I've heard that bell thousands of times and I've never heard a sound like that. Kynexn, you are a kind and strong person. It's that kind of sound. I'd like to- hold on... is... is something wrong?" I didn't want to make a scene but it was just so overwhelming. Not even Tensa could help this time. The only thing that could possibly change it was something that would be outside of my control.

"They're all here... I thought I'd never see them again until I died but why are they here...?" It wasn't until I opened my eyes again and saw them smiling that everything changed. Instead of being in front of me, they were all now gather around me, and smiling. The Zigzagoon even curled up on my lap, almost as if he were still corporeal and able to be there with me.

Almost immediately, as if via a magic spell was cast on me, my tears stopped flowing and I smiled again. It was as if they were telling me it was alright. It made me feel better about it, to the point that I believe that I would be able to continue without always feeling such a heavy weight on my shoulder. "I'll still never forget you all..." I quietly muttered to the group, and waited there for as long as they were allowed to stay there with me.

Skyla grinned excitedly, at the fact that her cannons were put to use again. "Hee-hee! I've been waiting for you. Did you enjoy flying with the help of the Mistralton Gym cannons? They're my pride and joy! This time, let's try something else!"

"Hm, a Swoobat is it? No need to doubt that it's an evolution of Woobat, but is the final stage?" I pointed my Pokédex at it to gain move information about it. In the long run though, it wouldn't matter, as Heji was a definite unfair advantage in this case.

Initially the gauge of the power aspect between the two of them became rather apparent really quickly.

"I think that's enough, alright Heji, let's finish this off with your Spark." I said, and pointed to the Woobat. Heji then began to build electricity around himself, before he charged toward the Woobat.

For the next round, she sent out her Unfezant. Although you could probably tell that ultimately Hei was going to finish her off, for the time being, I sent Sally out so that she would be able to get some experience against another one of her own kind.

The maneuvers that were performed by them made me really proud of how quickly Sally had advanced in her training... which... was also of course a tiny bit of a pat on the back. She was holding her own against a bird that had been trained by a Gym Leader, likely a very long time, years even.

"Alright Sally, I think that should do it for now. I hope you've absorbed quite a bit of knowledge from this battle, and I hope you enjoyed yourself. Now... Heji it's time to take over again." I said, as Sally was 'returned' from the field, and took her place by my side, since I didn't put her back into the ball.

Heji went to the forefront of the field, and I told him to use Thunder Fang. Her Unfezant was already worn out from all of the air dueling that she had been doing with Sally, so it was quite the easy matter for him to be able to catch her with a jump to bite her in the air.

Next up... was Swanna. As was habit, I quickly collected the data from the Pokédex scan, and found that it was at a strength level of 35.

"Now, it's not really going to matter what you do, because I'm sure you've experienced Discharge many times before, but I'm interested in seeing how Swanna would work to avoid it." One of the unfortunate effects of being a Swanna in a battle with an Electric-type Pokémon was the fact that there was four times as much susceptibility to electricity.

Despite the fact that she so easily lost, Skyla was just as happy-go-lucky as Professor Juniper. "You're an amazing Pokémon Trainer. My Pokémon and I are happy, because for the first time in a while, we could fight with our full strength. This is an official League Gym Badge. I think it will look good on you." This also made me think about something, but my thoughts were interrupted by her bringing me back to reality.

"By the way, when I flew over Twist Mountain on the way to Icirrus City... Team Plasma-is that the name? Anyway, they were heading for the city. What kind of people are they?"

"That depends on who are are asking. Some people call them horrible Pokémon thieves. If you look at it from their perspective they are righteous. Freeing Pokémon from the evils of humanity. I personally don't care what they think. If they get the way of what I'm doing, I'll take them out." She looked on, amazed at my strong will and determination.

N for one reason or another was waiting for us outside of the Gym, probably knowing that I'd be there due to wanted to collect all the badges

N looks at me holding my badge case, because I didn't quite put it away yet. "They may say it is for understanding one another better, but what Trainers really use battles for is to compete... And they hurt each others' Pokémon! Am I the only one who finds this terribly painful? Whatever... I'm going to talk to your Pokémon. I've been living with Pokémon since I was born, so it's easier for me to talk with them than with people. ...Because Pokémon never tell lies."

"Hey, Tensa. Would you tell me what kind of Trainer Kynexn is?"

"Kynexn is a great friend, but he doesn't call himself a Trainer. He is great at what he does though. He found me long after his journey into the Hoenn region... and he captivated me as you know... we've been together now for six years."

For whatever reason, N repeated. Perhaps he was taking mental notes and saying it out loud made them more ingrained into his mind. "So, he's been with you for quite a while? If every person and Pokémon cared about one another like you two do, I could watch over the future of people and Pokémon without having to liberate Pokémon from people who just use them."

"Ghetsis is using Team Plasma to search for some special stones-the Light Stone and the Dark Stone... These stones hold the essence of two legendary Pokémon. It is said that when they lost their physical form, they fell into a slumber and were transformed. Now, they wait for the hero's arrival... I shall resurrect a legendary Dragon-type Pokémon from one of these stones, and become its friend. That will show the world that I am the new hero. Everyone will follow what I say!"

"N... don't you realise that if you are to become the new hero, that would make the responsibility fall on me to become the other hero?"

"I am aware of that. You even said it yourself, that together we will change this world."

"My vision is to change the world without using force. Trying to change the world by force will just make others resist. If people resist, the ones that will be hurt are the innocent Pokémon used by foolish Trainers. You understand. Pokémon are not just tools for people to use!"

"As a result... Pokémon and Trainers who care about one another, like you and your Pokémon, will be separated. And that does break my heart a little."

"N, you STILL don't get it. I'm going to stop you. So that will never happen. However you look at it, you're still going to be forcing things."

"We shall see, friend." N then disappears into the world again.

The Xtransceiver rang, but I pretended not to hear it. After all, I can't always answer my phone. Maybe I was in the middle of a battle, maybe I left it somewhere while I was sleeping somewhere else.

With that out of the way... we headed toward Twist Mountain, which lay on the other side of the view of Celestial Tower.


End file.
